


Your Love Was Handmade (for somebody like me)

by stainedcoffeecups



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, M/M, but tons of fluff as well, lots of emotional bits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-01-09 04:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12269100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stainedcoffeecups/pseuds/stainedcoffeecups
Summary: An AU where a sex-tape gets leaked and Louis' team think that the best response to the mayhem it created would be to step back from the spotlight and take a break while it blows itself over. But when he ends up moving in with a man and his toddler, Louis soon learns that the world has more to offer than worldwide fame and chart topping albums; in this case it's Harry and George Styles.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Friends ! I'm back with a new fic ( yay!!) I hope you all love it like it do!!

“I’m sorry, Louis. But at this point I think the best thing to do to resolve this whole thing would be to take a step back from the spotlight altogether. Maybe for a year or so.”

Louis’ head snapped up from where he was trying to rip his napkin into the smallest possible pieces and fixed all the men and women from his management team, and their respective lawyers, with a glare. “You want me to go into hiding.” He stated simply, feeling his heart-rate start to pick, although he wasn’t going to let that show. Especially to them.

“Not go into hiding, persay. But we think the safest and most effective thing to do while this all blows over would be to pause all your current projects and endeavors.” The head suit says, sighing as if this is his life on the line too.

But it wasn’t - it was Louis’.

“And where exactly do you expect me to go? I’m not going to me mum’s house.” He said biting down hard on his lip, “Me step dad just got everything under control and got them all back into a steady routine without her, I’m not going to ruin all that. And I especially won’t be leading the paps there either. They don’t deserve that.” he practically spat, leaning back into the chair so roughly that he was momentarily nervous he was going to tip backwards.

“We don’t have to decide anything right now, I do however think that a safe location should be established before the end of the week. The paparazzi are getting too close to your house, regardless of the fact that it is a gated community, which is also completely unfair to all your neighbors as well.” One of the few women (Louis thought he vaguely remembered hearing her introduced as Elizabeth) in the room said calmly, looking at Louis with nothing but pity in her eyes.

Louis couldn’t bear to look at her for more than a few seconds.

“I have nowhere to go.” Louis said simply, shrugging his shoulders. “Can I just go to an island or something for a while until everything blows over?”

“No, we’d rather you stay close in case something happens and we need to reach you quickly.” the women, Elizabeth, said apologetically, looking down at her notes as if something would jump out at her. “Tell you what, let's all take a tea break and then we can keep talking about this. I want to make sure you’re completely happy and comfortable with whatever is decided on.”

Louis nodded, hastily getting up and heading straight for the balcony pulling out his pack of cigarettes. God forbid he went down to the street where someone could see him, he thought bitterly. He huddled in the furthest chair from the door, lighting up the first cig and took three deep puffs in quick succession trying his best to calm down. He wasn’t sure why any of this happened and it was moments like this where he desperately wished he could call his mum, craving the sound of her voice saying ‘ _darling, everything is going to be alright, just hold on.’_

Everything started going downhill from the moment he woke up this morning, and it had only been twenty minutes later that his bodyguard was practically breaking his front door down, shoving some of his clothes in an Adidas backpack, and pulling him up from the comfort of his own bed without so much as a good morning.

It wasn’t until later on, when he finally got his hands on a cup of tea that his manager broke the news to him that his ex boyfriend released a video of them from their anniversary, in compromising positions would have been an understatement.

The sliding french doors opening brought him out from his head and when he turned he saw a girl, probably around his age with short blonde hair. “Sorry to bother you Mr. Tomlinson. I figured you could use a cup of tea before you smoke yourself into oblivion.” She said smiling at him gently, while walking over and taking the seat next to him.

 

“Sorry love, I don’t mean to be rude but I was kinda hoping for a few moments to myself.” He said sheepishly, taking the steaming mug gratefully.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bother you for too long. I just wanted to run something by you..” She said cautiously, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. When Louis slowly nodded at her to go on she took a deep breath, “So long story short my little brother lives in a small house in Cheshire with my nephew. His roommate just got a job here in London so he’s got an empty room, if you needed a place to go. I could give him a call, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind considering he’s been looking for a new roommate anyways. And since it would be Cheshire, you’d be close to your family but it’s not like you would be right on top of them, you know? At least you’d be in the same timezone.” She said quickly, though she sat up straighter when he didn’t immediately protest her. “And I know I have no right, at all, but I’m a human and I care about fellow humans like yourself - considering everything that’s just gone down I really don’t think shipping yourself off to an isolated island is the best thing. You should still be around people, just you know, on the down low.” She finished quickly with a small shrug of her slim shoulders.

Louis took a deep breath, considering everything that she had just unloaded on him. If he went through with this, he would only be about an hour from his sisters, they could visit him if they wanted (he could only hope that they would want to). “I couldn’t intrude like that though, I mean, does your brother know what he would be getting into?” He asked cautiously, rubbing at his scruffy cheek.

The girl huffed and pulled out her phone from the inside pocket of her pantsuit. She clicked away for a few seconds before turning the phone around for Louis to inspect. “Look, he’s been complaining to me for about two weeks now about how quiet his house is.” She explained, but even Louis could hear the fondness seeping through her voice.

Louis took a sip of tea, before balancing the cup on the railing to his left and grabbing the phone from her hand, reading the message thread between her and a bloke named Harry.

**Gem...who knew I would actually miss Niall. But I do! I miss him!**

_Shut up, he was basically your husband. How’s Georgie been since he left?_

**Absolutely miserable! He’s not even three and I’m pretty sure he’s sick of me :(**

Louis smiled slightly at the picture of a little boy. It was from behind, but you could practically tell how sad he was, just by his slumped form against what looked like a window.

“He’s precious.” Louis said, passing the phone back. “I mean, I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. But as long as you make sure he is one hundred percent okay with the arrangement...”

“Gemma,” She finished for him, smiling so wide a dimple popped out on each cheek. “I’ll go give him a call now.” With a gentle squeeze to his knee, she got up and headed back inside making sure to close the door gently like she didn’t quite want attention drawn to herself.

Louis looked out at the busy London streets, slowly but surely waking up and getting busier by the second. He eyed the pack of cigs longingly but shoved them down into his bag, draining the last of the tea that Gemma had brought out for him. With one last breath of the brisk, autumn morning air he turned back to head inside.

“Better get this over with.” he muttered before opening the door back up and stepping into the big meeting room.

~

Once everyone was back in their rightful seats, Elizabeth cleared her throat and gave what was probably an attempt at a comforting smile in Louis’ direction, shuffling a few of her papers in front of her on the long table. “So my assistant, Gemma,” She nodded towards the blonde who was huddled out in the hallway on her phone, the smile was visible on her face even all the way from Louis’ seat. “Offered a safe location for Louis, she’s just calling her brother, I believe to make sure that he is alright with the arrangement as well.”

Gemma shuffled back in a few moments later, “He’d love to help out.” She said with a smile, surprising everyone when she walked around and sat next to Louis. After that though, it was all the basic meeting stuff; signing agreements, promising not to post on any social media until he was given the clear to do so, making sure he didn’t have his location on his phone turned on - all the usual things. But when he was given the all clear to go back to his home and pack his bags, the pit started to form in his stomach again.

“Wait, can Gemma accompany me to her brothers house?” He asked gripping onto her arm a little desperately.

Elizabeth looked between the two of them for a moment, before looking at her phone presumably her calendar. “I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon that I need her for, but she can leave early today to help you finalize all the things with her brother if you’d like.” She said before walking over and pulling Louis into a gentle, quick hug. “I’m sorry love, if I could spare her not being with me I’d tell her to go with you and get you all settled, but she’s the best of the best and I really need her here.” She pulled away, with a small frown and it wasn’t until she wiped at his cheek that he realized he was crying.

Louis shook himself out of it, completely embarrassed. “Thanks.” He muttered before Gemma pulled him from the room altogether.

It wasn’t until they were back in the car and a safe distance away from the building that he slumped in his seat. “I can’t believe I cried. I can’t believe I didn’t even realize I was crying.” He muttered playing with a rip in his joggers.

Gemma sighed and bit her lip gently, looking over at the man before glancing out the window. “Louis your whole life was flipped around in a matter of hours, and now you’re basically being forced to relocate your life. No one blames you for showing emotions, hell I’d be bawling if I were you.” She said reaching over to squeeze at his arm. “I think you’re really brave.”

Louis smiled at her gratefully, leaning his head back against the headrest and allowing his eyes to slip closed. “Will you tell me about your brother? I outta know what I’m getting myself into.” he laughed gently, letting the sound of her voice telling stories about a green-eyed, curly-haired lad lull him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have decided to update this fic every Thursday and Sunday...lets just see if I stick to it! lol
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are welcomed and appreciated!
> 
> Come say hi on tumblr !
> 
> happy reading !! xxx


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi Friends! I'm already back, haha. 
> 
> Here are a few links that will help as you read :) 
> 
> [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Qw3C62xwY&t=73s) is the house I have in mind when writing (they're my fave Youtubers - I highly recommend their channel). this is the house tour vlog, but watch any of the recent ones if you want because all the furniture in the fic is the same! 
> 
> [These](https://www.aclens.com/Product/27210?KW=PLA%20ST115735&zmam=90272621&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap=ST115735&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsNfOBRCWARIsAGITapYD4IugP8gmK3FPz2dtrMexWsWRASxwB1zYwKtFFUphoiRJczpdXCcaAnsCEALw_wcB&utm_source=249&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=PLA%20ST115735&utm_campaign=249&stockid=115820) are George's glasses, there's just something about little kids with glasses that absolutely melt my heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt a little bad because chapter one was so short, so....here's chapter two! 
> 
> hope you all enjoy!

Louis walked up the short path way, pausing every few moments to smile at all the kids toys scattered throughout the front garden. Gemma had mentioned that George was only a few weeks shy of his third birthday, but he was already giving his father a run for his money with just how cheeky and clever he was.

“Mr. Tomlinson, are you sure I can’t help you with your bags?” Anthony, his driver called from the car, making to step out but Louis turned around and shook his head politely.

“No thanks, Anthony. I’ve got it.” He smiled as best he could before turning back towards the house. When he got to the door, he dug the key out of his pocket that Gemma had given him and pushed the front door open, the smell of chocolate chip cookies instantly filling his nose.

He set his bags down to the side of the door, just to pull his shoes off and place them on the small mat. He decided the bags were fine there for the time being and slowly took off into the house, hoping to explore a little bit before his new roommates got home.

_“Harry has to take George to a doctor's appointment in Manchester, so you might be alone for a few hours. But please make yourself at home.”_

He could still hear Gemma’s voice from when she called him on his drive up here, and although at first he felt a little weird about being in a stranger's house alone for a few hours, now he was actually grateful, considering he could snoop a little and familiarize himself with the house while he still had a few moments to himself.

Walking further into the room, Louis could see that the television had been left on where Moana and Maui were paused singing making Louis smile slightly. He saw even more toys scattering the living room floor, little trucks, legos, even a few plush character dolls were scattered around. He had to bite his lip at the little basket in the corner stuffed to the brim with throw blankets.

Louis shook his head fondly and turned to his right, heading towards the kitchen area. The whole house itself had an open floor plan, so although he crossed over to the kitchen, he could still see everything in the living room area. On the counter a piece of paper caught his eye, which was balanced on a plate of cookies. Louis plucked up the note, along with two cookies and walked back around the counter top until he got to the barstools. Once he was settled on one, and halfway through his first cookie he looked at the note and smiled, yet again. There were little crayon marks in all the margins as if George had been trying to help Harry write the note.

 

_Hi Louis!_

_My name is Harry, bit awkward that you’re reading this so don’t worry I’ll say it again when I get home. George and I shouldn’t be gone for too much longer once you get there - his appointment is at half noon, so fingers crossed there isn’t a long wait!_

_Your room is off the living room to the left, the sheets are all freshly washed and I made sure the closet and dresser were all clear for you to unpack._

_I do have one little thing though, after my first roommate I came up with this ‘roommate agreement’ of sorts. Nothing major, just little things like not smoking in the house, or drinking alcohol in front of George, and obviously cleaning up after yourself. If you could please read that before I get home that would be great! We can discuss and adjust things to whatever would make you feel more comfortable , and of course I’d be happy to sign one for you as well._

_We are super excited to meet you and hope that you like living with us!_

_Harry and George xx_

Louis swallowed the last of the cookie, barely managing it with how dry his mouth was all of a sudden. It made sense, it was his home and all he was allowed to have some rules but all of a sudden Louis had this fear of living with a ‘Sheldon Cooper’. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to keep up with all those rules.

But, the bloke seemed nice, and he really doubted Gemma would have lied to him she seemed too kind.

Louis stole another cookie, before grabbing a strip of kitchen roll to cover the plate with. He shuffled back out into the entry hall and picked up his pile of bags, before making his way through the living room, careful of all the legos - he did grow up with little siblings and knows first-hand how bad those things hurt going into the bottom of your feet. The bedroom door on the right was open slightly so Louis ducked his head in, face instantly lighting up at the fairy lights strung around the room giving the pale blue comforter a soft glow to it.

He didn’t want to admit it outloud, because he felt so guilty already - but the thought of living with a little kid again made him feel giddy. He was already gone a lot from his own home considering he auditioned for the X-Factor when he was 16, and the time away only increased when he won a few months later.

He missed out on so much, he has a sister and brother that probably wouldn’t even know him if he went home, but he just can’t bring himself to actually make the trip back. After his mum died, he closed himself off. It was one of the reasons his relationship with Xander completely deteriorated. He had lost his best friend and he didn’t know how to cope. And instead of stepping up and being the big brother that his siblings deserved he locked himself away and hid.

Louis shook his head to clear his thoughts, walking back towards what would be his bedroom for the unforeseeable future. The room was big enough, a queen size bed was pushed against the farthest wall beneath two windows, a dresser sat across from the foot of the bed with a telly mounted to the wall above it, and a small little nightstand holding a lamp was next to the bed.

Louis walked in and dropped his four bags onto the bed, digging around in the smallest of the four until he found the picture frame and put his mum on the side table, smiling at her. He found the remote to the telly in the top drawer and flipped through the channels until he found some reruns of Friends, to fill the silence as he began the monotonous task of putting away all his clothes.

Once all the bags were emptied and shoved under the bed, Louis changed into some sweats and wandered back out into the living room, wondering where his roommates were. The sun was slowly sinking lower over the horizon so Louis put the kettle on for some tea and somehow managed to get a fire going in the fireplace. Once he was all set up on the couch, with a steaming mug Louis settled in and started reading this ‘agreement’.

Harry had been right, all it was was just courtesy things. Like not being too loud once George goes to bed, not having guests overnight without warning Harry; he promised the same. The smaller ones were things that Louis was going to do automatically, like contribute to the weekly food shops bill. All-in-all it seemed fine. Louis honestly thought he could get used to living here.

He must have dozed off, because the next time he opened his eyes a little body was trying to worm it’s way underneath the throw blanket with him. Instinctively, Louis wrapped his arms around the squirmy body cracking open his eyes and glancing down at his side.

“Hi!” A little voice chirped, wiggling even closer.

Louis used his left hand and rubbed at his eyes before looking down again, smiling instantly at the round face, with forest green circle glasses perched on his nose. “Hello there! Are you Georgie?” He asked, brushing some of his unruly curls out of his face. This child was absolutely precious.

“Yes!” he said, covering his mouth with his little hands as he giggled. “You my new friend?” He asked curiously, leaning his head on Louis’ chest as he was momentarily distracted by his movie that was turned back on the telly, the volume down low.

“Yeah, I’m Louis. It’s very nice to meet you little lad.” Louis smiled, using the arm that wasn’t pinned underneath the boy to pull the blanket more securely around his little body. Because although the fire was still flickering away, the air had a slight chill to it.

Before Louis could question where the other man was, someone behind the couch sighed. “George, didn’t you promise Dada you wouldn’t wake him up if I put your movie back on?” Louis craned his neck as best he could to catch sight of the man, shocked at how much he resembled George.

“Dada he looked cold.” George huffed from Louis’ chest not looking up, only pressing himself closer to him.

Louis let out a small laugh and gave the boy a gentle squeeze. “That’s alright, I probably wouldn’t have slept tonight if he hadn’t woken me up.” He smiled when Harry finally walked around the couch and sat down. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Louis Tomlinson.” he held out his hand to shake, smiling politely when Harry shook it - not at all thinking about the massive size  
difference.

“I’m Harry,” He smiled sitting down in the corner of the couch. “Gemma forgot to mention that her friend Louis was actually Louis Tomlinson, I feel a little silly now considering we were just listening to your album on the way home.” He said sheepishly, blushing the prettiest shade of red Louis ever saw.

Louis glanced down, smiling at George who was blinking his eyes slowly looking like he was just about ready to go to sleep where he was on Louis’ chest before looking back up at Harry. “Thank you again, for letting me stay here. Whatever you need, please don’t hesitate to ask me.” He said seriously, before remembering what was on the coffee table. “Oh and here’s the roommate agreement,” He paused, managing to grab it with his toes so he didn’t have to disrupt George. “Everything sounds super agreeable.”

Harry smiled shyly and took the small pile of papers, smoothing them out on his lap. “Hey the same thing goes for you, if there's anything you want me to sign to make you feel more comfortable I will.”

Louis thought for a few moments, before looking over at the younger lad sheepishly. “Can you maybe just not post any pictures or anything on social media - for all of our safety. I wouldn’t want the media to invade your privacy like that if they ever tracked down where you live.”

Harry’s eyes widened before he nodded his head, “Oh my gosh, of course. You have my word, Louis.” He said seriously.

A small, comfortable silence filled the air after that, both the men leaning back into the couch and watching the Disney movie along with George. It was probably ten minutes later that George sat up and fixed his father with a very serious (extremely cute) glare.

“Dada my tummy is talking.” He pouted, patting at his pudgy tummy.

Harry gasped dramatically and sat up, a hand pressed over his chest. “Oh no! What is it saying?” He asked reaching forward and pulling the little boy onto his lap.

The whole room was filled with the sound of his giggles, and Louis couldn’t help but smile at the two of them. George put his hands on both of his father's cheeks, “Silly Dada..” he giggled out, “We gots to make fooood.” He hummed, leaning forward so that their noses were touching.

Harry smiled at him, running his hand up and down his back and placing a quick peck to his pouty lips. “How about you ask Louis what he’d like for dinner, I think it would be very kind if you let him pick tonight.”

George gasped and launched his body back towards Louis, who thankfully was quick enough to catch him. “Lou, what you want?” He asked curiously, running his little fingers over the scruff littering his cheeks.

“Hmm,” Louis said leaning back into the couch. “How do we feel about some pizza?”

Louis jumped slightly at George’s happy squeal. “Lou! How you know?” He asked, the dimples in his cheek so deep that Louis couldn’t help but run his thumb over one.

“Know what love?”

“I loooove pizza. You know my mind!” He exclaimed throwing his arms around Louis’ neck and hugging him tight.

Louis took one look at Harry who was trying desperately not to laugh at his son, and completely lost it. Clutching George to him so he didn’t topple off his lap, “You my little lad, completely just made my day.”

~

 

Together, the three of them formed a routine.

George had quickly taken to waking up at the crack of dawn and then wandering through the small hallway connecting both their bedrooms, climbing into Louis’ bed with him until Harry woke them both up, at a reasonable hour mind you, with the smell of breakfast cooking away.

_The first time it happened Louis didn’t even realize what had happened._

_It was on the second morning in the house, Harry and Louis had stayed up late watching sitcoms on the living room telly, talking about everything to get to know each other. It was late when they finally said goodnight and parted to their own bedrooms. All he knew was that one minute he was peacefully sleeping, sprawled out on his back when his bedroom door crashed open to reveal a sweaty and obviously panicking Harry. “Oh thank God.” He muttered, running his hands down his cheeks in an attempt to calm himself down._

_“Wha’ “appened?” Louis asked, voice still thick with sleep fighting against the yawn that was desperate to interrupt him._

_“I couldn’t find Georgie.” Harry said simply, still sounding slightly out of breath._

_Louis’ head shot up from where it was back on the pillow, all feelings of sleep trying to pull him back disappeared in an instant. “What?”_

_At that Harry just raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the bed. Confused, Louis glanced to his right which was the side of the bed pressed up against the wall and was met with George laying next to him, completely fast asleep._

_“What in the world,” Louis whispered laughing quietly. He ran his fingers over the toddler’s rosy cheeks, which prompted him to start sucking on the dummy that was hanging half out of his mouth. George stirred a little bit, but only pushed himself closer to Louis and nuzzled his head onto his chest._

_“It’s only six, why don’t you go back to sleep. I can take him if you want.” Louis frowned and shook his head, immediately putting his arms around the sleeping boy._

_“No,” he muttered wiggling around a little bit until he was in a better position to go back to sleep. “Let him stay please, I love cuddling.”_

_Harry shook his head in obvious amusement, still leaning against the door. “Alright,” He sighed starting to back out of the room while he pulled the door shut. “See you two in a few hours.”_

“So Lou,” Harry started, pausing to take a bite of his turkey sandwich. The three boys were sitting in the living room enjoying lunch after a long morning of playing football in the backyard. George was going to take an amazing nap, Harry was hoping he could maybe sneak one in too.

Oh, and did he already mention that they were now on nickname basis? It was a recent development that always made Louis’ toes feel a little tingly - not that he would ever admit that though. It had already been a month and a half, and Louis fit in seamlessly. It was as if he had been living with them this whole time because Harry couldn’t seem to remember a time that the Yorkshire lad wasn’t with them.

“Haz,” Louis said back, crossing his eyes at George just to hear the toddler laugh his little belly laugh that Louis loved so dearly.

“Someone’s birthday is coming up, and I was wondering what you’d be comfortable with doing.” Harry said, pausing to take another bite and chew before continuing. “I mean last year we took him to the indoor trampoline park in Manchester, but I know we should avoid public settings so would you be okay if I asked my family to come over? For a little p-a-r-t-y.” Harry spelt out that last word, mindful of the little ears that could start listening in on any second.

“Wait,” Louis said quietly, furrowing his eyebrows a little. He sat up and leaned forward to put his plate on the coffee table in front of him. “What?” He finally asked completely confused.

Harry looked over and bit his lip, and being the open book that he was (Louis was quick to learn that - this man wore his heart on his sleeve). “I-I was hoping you could help me plan..” Harry said cautiously, turning redder by the second.

“Harry, no..no.” Louis said reaching out and grabbing his forearm to give it a gentle squeeze. “I just meant, are you sure you want me to be a part of it? Like...I don’t mind if you guys go out and have a family day. I don’t have to be included.” Louis said, hoping to get his message across. It’s not that he didn’t want to be included, it's just that Louis didn’t want the whole day revolving around and catered specifically to him when it should be all about George.

“Hey stop that,” Harry pouted, placing a hand on top of Louis’. “I know that you’ve only lived here for like two months but you must be able to tell how important you already are to us. Especially him - you’re his idol.” Harry said quietly, motioning over to the toddler who was smiling at Louis. He didn’t even have to look back at Harry to know that he was doing his puppy eyes, the same ones that George did countless times throughout the day to make sure he got whatever it was that he was asking for.

And that’s when Louis knew he was in deep, deep trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are always welcomed and appreciated ! :) 
> 
> Happy Reading! xx


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter three ! :)

“Hey mum,” Harry hummed into the phone, immediately smiling as she jumped into the newest story of what her new kitten was up to. “Would you happen to be free next weekend? I was hoping to plan a little thing for George.” He asked once she was done talking.

Louis and George were sat over in the living room watching Tangled, while Harry went about the task of making dinner in the kitchen. George had requested fish-fingers and peas, so while that all defrosted on the counter he went about getting down the plates and silverware for when they were all ready.

“Oh that sounds lovely!” Anne gushed immediately, “And that’s the weekend that Gems comes home as well so it’ll be perfect!” Harry could tell just by the sound of her voice that she was smiling so wide, her lips were probably at her ears. It was always a little funny to him how she got so excited every time the possibility of having both her kids in one place made her, but now that he was a dad himself, he completely understood.

“Now what about, Louis?” She asked, after they figured out the menu for the party; little finger sandwiches, because they were George’s favorite.

“What about him? He’ll obviously be home for it. It’s just going to be you and Gem, maybe Niall if I can convince him to head up here for the day.”

“Oh please,” Anne huffed out a laugh, “You’re not going to need to ‘convince’ Niall of all people. He was the first to fall victim to George’s pout may I remind you.” Harry laughed, that being completely true, to this day he doesn’t think Niall has actually ever said no to the toddler.

“I meant, will Louis be inviting any of his family? He’s got little siblings around George’s age no?” She asked curiously.

And that was something that Harry didn’t even think of, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that George would love having other little kids to play with, but Louis rarely if not ever spoke of his family. He did the first night when they were getting to know each other. But he never went past telling their names and ages. And Harry wasn’t stupid, he could remember the headlines when his mum passed away last year - it’s obvious that he’s still affected by it.

“Lou,” he said after setting the tray of frozen food in the oven, and when he glanced up the older lad was looking over at him with a small smile on his face, a questioning tilt to his eyebrow. “I’m just running to my room real quick.” He explained, smiling when he got a thumbs up in return.

“I don’t know, mum. I wouldn’t want to put him in an uncomfortable situation.” He sighed, flopping back into his bed, letting out an oomph when he landed against the pillows. “He rarely talks about them.”

“Harry love, the worst thing that could happen would be that he says no. But I think it would be really nice if he knew he had the option.” Anne said soothingly, and by the background noise Harry knew she was going through the steps of making her afternoon tea.

“You’re right, I’ll ask him tonight.” Harry said quietly, smiling as he listened to his mother move about in her kitchen. “I’m off though, I’ve got two hungry boys to feed.”

“Wait H, can you facetime me for one quick second. I wanted to show Georgie the kitten.” She said right before he could hang up.

“Yeah mum, just give me a second..” He muttered pulling the phone away from his ear to press the facetime button. It only rang a few times before Anne answered, looking as happy as ever, with the small black and white ball of fluff curled up on her chest.

“Have you decided if you’re going to adopt her?” he asked as he walked back out towards the living room, watching in complete amusement as his mother did her very best to hold the now squirming kitten on her chest.

“I think so, I’ve fallen in love. I don’t think I could bear giving her away now.” she smiled down at the kitten, still without a name, and pressed two kisses right between her little eyes.

“Mum that always happens. You always say you’re just going to foster them and then you end up keeping them.” Harry laughed as he rounded the corner to the kitchen. He peeked over at the oven and saw that their dinner still had twelve minutes, so he kept walking over to the couch. “Georgie, Nana wanted to say hi to you.” He smiled, secretly cooing at the sight before him. George was sprawled out on his back, on top of Louis mind you, mouthing along to the songs as he watched the movie. But when he heard it was his Nana, he immediately started making grabbing hands for the phone.

“Nana!” He cheered happily, paying no mind as Harry brushed his hair off his face before retreating back to the kitchen to tidy the mess that had accumulated throughout the day.

“Oh my baby! Don’t you look so handsome!” Anne smiled, only seeing about half of her grandson’s face since he was holding the phone that close to himself. “Nana wanted to show you her new kitty, isn’t she cute?”

George gasped out a little squeal, shaking the phone so bad that Louis took it from his little hands and held it out for him, smiling when the toddler unthinkingly put his hand on his wrist. “Nana she so pretty! But where Dusty?” George asked, pouting when he realized that his favorite kitty ever was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s taking a snooze on the window sill, see love?” Anne smiled, pulling the phone away from her face to show the sprawled out cat behind her head. “The new kitty was making Dusty play with her all morning, so she’s really sleepy.” she explained. “Georgie would you like to help Nana pick out a name for her?” that was the whole reason as to why she wanted to facetime with George, she thought it would be really special for the both of them if he picked out the name.

George sighed and leaned back into Louis’ chest. “Lou, what name?” he asked glancing up at the older lad who was completely caught off guard. Startling again when he heard Anne curiously ask, “Who are you talking to baby?”

“Oh Nana!” George jumped back up, this time positioning himself next to Louis on his knees so they were roughly the same height. “This my Lou.” He explained, worming his arms around Louis’ neck and hugging him tight.

“Woah lad, I still need to breathe silly.” Louis laughed, putting his arm around the toddler and completely ignoring the way his heart was pounding in his chest. _My Lou_. “Hi Mrs. Styles, it’s very nice to meet you. George has told me lots about you.” He finally said, moving Harry’s phone around so that they were both in shot.

“Oh please call me Anne, love. Mrs. Styles is my ex-mother in law.” She gave a subtle shiver as she said it which made Louis throw his head back and laugh.

“Mum be nice!” Harry called from over in the kitchen, but when Louis looked over even he could see his amused face as he shook his head.

“Alright boys, back to the task at hand. What should I name this gorgeous girl?” Anne asked, still chuckling a little bit, especially when the kitten poked her head over her shoulder and gave her earlobe a few licks.

Louis smiled and glanced down at George who found what the kitten was doing to his Nana absolutely hysterical. “Look Lou! She gots dots!” George giggled pointing to where the kitten had little black dots of fur on her white face.

“Hmm, what about..” Louis smiled at Anne and leaned down to whisper into the toddler’s ear. “Do you like the name Dotty?” he whispered.

George put his head on Louis’ shoulder and thought it over for a few seconds before nodding his head so fast his little glasses slipped down his nose a little bit. “Dotty?” he asked Anne while crawling back into Louis’ chest. This time lying down chest to chest with him, nuzzling up into his throat.

“Oh I love that!” Anne smiled, loving how happy her baby looked, and especially loving how close the two of them seemed to be. “Thank you so much, boys. But I know that Dada is getting dinner ready so I’ll let you two go eat. Love you, pumpkin.” She smiled blowing a kiss to George. “And Louis, it was lovely finally getting to meet you. Hopefully we can talk again soon.”

“Definitely.” Louis smiled, before handing the phone off to George so he could blow her kisses. Once she hung up, he stood up with George situated on his hip and walked over to the kitchen where Harry was just putting the last of the ketchup onto George’s little plate. “Here’s your phone.”

Harry looked up and smiled, pocketing the phone before reaching his arms out for George to be passed over the counter. “Let’s wash these little fingers, hmm? And then we can have some yummy dinner.”

George squealed out when Harry gently tickled his ribs, finally settling enough to follow directions and wash his hands with his Dada’s help. “Where do you want to sit love?” Harry asked once his hands were dry and he triple checked that the oven had been shut off.

“Next to Lou.” he said immediately, making grabby hands so that older lad would take him back.

“I know that silly goose, but do you want to sit at the counter or in the living room?” Harry explained, laughing just at the look on George’s face. It was so obvious that Louis was quickly becoming a hero-type for the toddler. And Harry really couldn’t say he was all that bothered by it.

George tapped his little chin, looking thoughtfully between the counter and back over to the couch. “Couch….cozy.” he finally decided, twirling a piece of Louis’ hair around his finger.

Both the adults smiled at each other both knowing that was what the toddler was going to say. Louis grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge as well as George’s sippy-cup, while Harry balanced all three plates in his arms to carry over to the couch.

Dinner was a quiet affair, all three of the boys munching on their food and occasionally giggling at Rapunzel and Flynn. Once George was stuffed, he crawled over to Harry and cuddled into his chest. Harry smiled down at him and gave him a tight squeeze, glancing at the clock to see that it was nearly seven. “Baby, want Dada to go get a nice, cozy bath ready for you?” He asked, pressing little kisses all along George’s hairline.

“Lou too?” He asked, breaking off into a huge yawn and snuggling even closer to his father.

Louis looked up from where he had been collecting the dinner plates and smiled. “How about Dada gives you your bath but I’ll help tuck you in, yeah? I’ll even read you an extra story.” He pretended to whisper, knowing that Harry could hear and see everything, but the little glint in George’s eyes was what made it all worth it.

He was truly flattered by how much George had taken to him, and to be honest he was just as obsessed with the toddler himself. But he didn’t want Harry to feel like he was trying to fill a role, or replace him in any way - so every once in awhile he subtly backed off to let them have alone time even though he usually ended up joining them after an hour.

Once both the Styles boys were in the bathroom, singing obnoxiously loud (don’t let him fool you, he loved whenever the two of them sang - it was the sweetest thing in the whole world.) Louis started going about the task of tidying the house. First he loaded up the dishwasher, then wiped down all the counters/surfaces with the disinfectant spray he ordered on accident, but Harry ended up loving.

Louis had just sat back down on the couch after fixing all the throw pillows and putting all of George’s toys in their correct places in the playroom when the bathroom door opened and Harry walked out with George on his hip, wrapped up like a little burrito in his favorite Finding Nemo towel.

“Look at you all squeaky clean!” Louis said, smiling at George who was squinting at him since his glasses had been removed before bathtime.

“Stories Lou?” He asked still as happy as ever even though he was knuckling at his eyes.

“Yeah, babe. I’ll be right in okay? Let me go get into my jammies too.” Louis said waiting for Harry to go into George’s room so he could get to his.

Once he was all changed and his phone was on the charger Louis walked back across the hall, following the sound of giggles. “Alright, which stories should we read tonight?” Louis asked happily, motioning to the two shelves by the door, stacked to the brim in books.

George stuck his head under his blankets and dug around for a few seconds, popping back up with a well-loved copy of _“The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”_. “This one please.” he grinned scooting over so that Louis could lay down with him.

“Only one chapter Georgie, remember Lou has to go night-night too.” Harry said, standing up straight from where he was plugging in the fairy lights. “I love you, baby. Sweet dreams.” Harry whispered leaning down over Louis to press a kiss to the toddler’s head. “I’ll have tea ready.” he whispered as he stood back up, smiling one last time at the two of them before he retreated back out to the living room.

Louis waited until George got situated on the bed next to him: his glasses were safely on the dresser beside them, he had his dummy in his hand, and his favorite blanket pulled up to his chin, and the little boy let out a contented sigh as he rested his head on the Yorkshire lad’s chest. He cleared his throat hoping to get a little giggle out of him, he did, and opened up the book to the first page. “Chapter one...Lucy looks into the wardrobe..”

It was probably close to an hour later when Louis reemerged from George’s room. Truthfully, he fell asleep after about fifteen minutes but Louis wanted to make sure that he was in a deep sleep before even attempting to move.

“I left your tea in the kettle because I didn’t know how long you’d be in there.” Harry smirked at him from his spot in the corner of the couch.

“Oi, I fell asleep in there one time! Are you ever going to let me live that down?” Louis laughed walking to the kitchen and pouring himself a cuppa. He grabbed the small tin of cookies next to all the tea bags and shuffled back over, setting the cup of hot tea on the table before flopping down onto the couch, completely exhausted from their day and settling his feet up in Harry’s lap - smiling at the younger lad when he made a disgruntled noise.

“You know, I don’t know how me mum did it.” He said thoughtfully, reaching for his cup and taking a long sip. “I mean she was a single mum to five kids - she worked two jobs to make sure we had everything we needed and not once did I ever see her complain.”

“Mums have superpowers, I’m sure of it.” Harry smiled over at him, swiping a cookie from the tin in Louis’ lap. “When my dad left - God I was about seven I think? My Mum packed me and Gem up and moved us here for a fresh start. She bought the house and painted both our bedrooms the same day so that we felt more at home. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank her for everything that she’s done for me.”

“Do you still talk to your dad?” Louis asked quietly, he felt like this was such a delicate topic that anything over a whisper was too much.

“Not really, I mean he’s my Dad and I’ll always love him but-” Harry cut himself off with a small shrug. “He left us for a new family and forgot all about us.”

“That’s shit H, I’m so sorry. He doesn’t deserve any of you.” Louis said, somewhat fiercely. It’s the ‘older brother’ in him that makes him so protective of people, especially innocent, kind men with cute little boys who have somehow wormed themselves into his heart.

Harry shrugged again and smiled, it had been over a decade - although the wounds were still there, they were well on their way to being completely healed. He used think about it constantly, wondering well into the night if he was the reason his Dad left his mum, because everything had seemed fine until all of a sudden it wasn’t and he was telling him and his sister that he was leaving and not coming back. He had more than enough people in his life who loved him, but what comforted him was that his own son would never have to go through what he did as a little boy. There was no way he could walk away from all that.

“What about you? What’s your relationship with your dad like?” He asked, biting at his lip because it was out and he couldn’t take it back now.

“I’m not too close to my biological dad. He was never a fan of how close me and me mum were, he was always so jealous. But my stepdad is nice, he’s always texting me and sending me updates and pictures of all my siblings.”

“You know, I was thinking..” Harry started quietly, looking resolutely at Louis’ socked feet still strewn over his lap. “If you wanted to invite them down here next weekend, please feel free. Cause you know, this is your house too and I hope you know that you are more than welcome to invite your family over whenever you want. You don’t need permission.” He finished and sucked in a deep breath, starting to sweat in places that shouldn’t because of how nervous he was.

Louis let out an audible breath a few minutes later, looking at his lap and picking at a seam on his joggers. “Thank you so much..” He started, feeling brave enough to look up after he started talking. “I haven’t- I haven’t been the best…..step-son and brother since my mum died. I think I needed a push to finally do this. But thank you so much, Harry...really. I just- I’m kinda nervous..” he muttered rubbing a hand down his face, feeling the heat radiating off of it.

“Hey, George and I will be right next to you the whole time. There’s nothing to be scared of. Promise.” Harry said seriously, sitting up and pulling Louis’ hands away from his face so that he would be forced to look at him.

The two turned back to the telly, watching the Great British Bakeoff while they finished up their tea and cookies. Louis turned to Harry about to ask him if he wanted to watch a movie, when the distant click of a door caught their attention.

Both the adults turned their heads to the left just in time to see George tiptoe across the hall, peering into Louis’ room. They were both totally amused as he pushed the door open more and slipped his body through the crack - no doubt walking up to the bed and climbing under the covers.

“I guess that’s my cue to get to bed.” Louis laughed, shaking his head fondly. “Night, H.” he smiled, making sure to put his empty tea cup in the sink before heading towards his dark, quiet bedroom.

“Yeah...night.” Harry said in complete awe of this man that was living with them, feeling, as strange as it may sound, like he had somehow won the lottery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Reading !! xx
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> [tumblr](http://stainedcoffee-cups.tumblr.com/)


	4. Four

It had been four days since Louis and Harry’s talk in the living room and Louis still couldn’t bring himself to pick up his cell phone. He knew realistically that his family were probably thinking to give him space and let him be the first to reach out to them, without a doubt they knew about the scandal since everyone and their mother seemed to be talking about it from what little time he’s spent on his social media accounts. But, he had this underlying fear of being turned away, shunned. Not that his family would do that, of course, but Louis was thinking of any and every excuse to postpone the phone call a little bit longer.

He finally decided that enough was enough mid-afternoon; Harry and George were both at the shops getting food for the upcoming week, so he had the house for at least another hour all to himself.

He went about the motions of making a cup of tea first, in an attempt to calm himself down considering the iPhone was burning a hole through his joggers. Once it was done though, he had nothing left to prevent him from just picking up the phone and dialing.

“C’mon Tommo...get yourself together. This is fuckin pathetic…” he muttered under his breath as he went down the contact list looking for Dan’s work number. He knew that his step-dad was most likely on his lunch break so he figured he would be the safest bet - he wasn’t ready to face his sisters just yet.

He pulled one of the throw blankets up to his chin as he pressed call, hoping to feel more comforted by the fabric but all it did was make him feel suffocated.

“Yorkshire General Hospital, Dr. Deakin’s office: this is Louise…” Louis took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“Hi Louise, is um...is Dan around?” He asked, using his thumb and pointer finger to tug on his lower lip - a habit he had picked up from Harry.

“He just stepped out for lunch, but I can take a message if you’d like.” Louise said cheerily, Louis could hear the shuffling of papers in the background as if she had a notepad open and was ready to write.

“Would you mind just telling him that um, that Louis called. Please give him this number..” He said, feeling a weight settling into his chest.

“Of course- oh! Dr. Deakin, I wasn’t expecting you to be that quick, I was just taking a message for you from someone named Louis..” Louise said, slightly muffled. She must have covered the receiver with her hand.

“Louis?” He could still hear Dan’s gasp in the background and it made tears spring to his eyes - He now wished that he had George to cuddle with because in that moment he’s never felt so alone.

There was a brief moment where the automatic hold music played but just as quickly as it had started it ended, “Lou, is it really you?” Dan asked slightly breathlessly.

“Hi Dan..” he gave a shaky laugh, bringing up his left hand to cover his eyes as tears started leaking out without his permission.

“Oh Louis,” he sighed, sounding utterly relieved. “I’ve been so worried. Are you alright? Where are you staying?”

“Um...I’m as good as can be right now.” He started off, launching himself into the story of how he ended up in Holmes Chapel, and all about Harry and George. Dan never interrupting him, except for small hums here and there letting him know that he was still listening. “They’re so lovely. And it’s actually...um George is turning three next week and-I know this is such short notice but Harry said I could invite you guys down for the little party we’re having for him. I understand if you guys can’t come….I just-I really miss you guys..”

“We miss you too, Lou.” He said quietly, like he didn’t want the younger lad to end up feeling bad. “The only thing that the twins want to watch nowadays are all your music videos. I’m pretty sure I could recreate them in my sleep.” Dan muttered, chuckling when he heard Louis laugh.

Louis laughed and closed his eyes, picturing his younger sisters in his head. “Those two always loved to put on a show, even more than me I think.”

“No Lou, I’m talking about the baby twins.” Dan explained laughing. “Whenever any of their little friends come over the first thing they do is make them watch all your music videos. I love you Lou, but I don’t know how I feel about my four year olds singing No Control.”

At that Louis threw his head back and laughed so hard he was sure the neighbors could hear him. “That’s incredible!” He said, wiping away the last of the wetness on his cheeks, feeling so much lighter than he had just this morning. “I was so nervous that they didn’t remember me..”

“Oh come off it, Lou.” Dan scoffed, sounding just like his mum in that moment that he couldn’t help but smile. “You’re their hero, they would never forget you. And your sisters’ and I would never let that happen.” he soothed.

Louis leaned back into the couch, closing his eyes as he listened to Dan fill him in on everything else that happened over the past year that he had been away. There was never a moment though where Dan tried to make Louis feel guilty; he knew how much the passing of Jay destroyed him, he would never hold that against him.

Louis got so lost in catching up that he practically jumped out of his skin when he heard the garage door open, “My Lou!! We gots you a prezzie!” George was suddenly barreling towards him. Louis smiled and instantly opened his arms for him to cuddle into. He made a shush motion with his finger to his lips, but when he caught sight of the time his eyes practically bulged out of his head. “Dan! Why didn’t you tell me I kept you on here for an hour and a half? I took up your whole lunch hour!” Louis felt awful, knowing how hard working his step-dad was the last thing he wanted was to keep him from some rest time.

“Psh, I cleared my afternoon schedule quit worrying Lou. Talking to you was way more important.” Dan said instantly, “I’ll let you go though because I can hear a little voice asking for your attention. Text me all the details about the party though, yeah? Can’t wait to see you.”

“I will, thank you so much Dan. Love you.”

Once the phone-call disconnected and the phone was tossed to the other end of the couch, Louis turned his full attention to the toddler. “How was the shops? Did you and Dada get yummy food?” He asked, brushing George’s curls out of his face and straightening his little glasses for him.

He stood up from the couch, immediately settling the toddler on his hip as he walked towards the garage to help Harry carry all the food bags in, listening intently as George told him all about their outing.

“Nice of you to join me boys.” Harry said playfully, fixing both of them with a ‘stern’ look.

Louis laughed and set George on the ground so he could grab some of the reusable bags filled to the brim with groceries. “I called my step-dad…” he said once he and Harry were shoulder to shoulder at the boot of the car. “He said he and my siblings would love to come.”

Harry gasped, fumbling slightly with the bags he was gripping. “Oh Lou, I’m so happy for you!” He said throwing his arms around Louis in a quick, but tight hug. “George is going to be so happy!” He laughed, glancing over at the boy in question who was jumping in the rain puddles that littered the drive.

“Oi! You better not be trudging those dirty wellies into the house, you little stinker!” Harry yelled playfully , making to chase after him.

Louis watched on in an complete amusement while George ran around the front garden while Harry ‘chased’ after him. “Lou! Save me!” He squealed running up to him and hiding behind his legs, giggling into the backs of his knees.

“Oh no! Where did he go?” Harry exclaimed throwing his hands up above his head.

“I have no idea! He’s so fast! Guess we’ll just have to eat all these cookies then, Harry.” Louis said with a smirk, both hearing and feeling the little grumbles that left George’s mouth.

“Louuuu!” He whined tugging at the back of his sweater, and when Louis turned around he was faced with the most adorable pout in history.

“Dada says share.” He pushed his bottom lip out even more, furrowing his little eyebrows as he did his best to cross his arms.

Louis giggled and bent down to pick him up, “I know Georgie, I was only teasing.” He soothed pressing kisses to both his cheeks to make him smile again.

 

The next week had flown by so fast, Louis was sure all he did was blink and it was three days until the party. Anne had come down on Thursday with Gemma, both of them having taken a long weekend from work to help both the men get the house ready for the party. Gemma had come barreling into the house like a bat out of hell, completely disregarding her brother as she plowed into Louis and hugged him tight. As Harry just stood in mock-outrage watching the whole scene in front of him. When Anne had come in…

“Jeez Louis would you sit down, you’re making me dizzy.” Harry laughed from the couch, watching as Louis paced the living room.

“Harry this is your Mum! George’s Nana! What if she doesn’t like me once she actually meets me in person?” Louis whined throwing himself down on the couch so that his head fell in the younger lad’s lap.

“You’re actually mental..” Harry giggled, running his fingers through Louis’ feathery hair hoping to calm him down slightly. It had worked for about five minutes, Louis’ breath evened out and he may have even fallen asleep until Louis heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

He snapped up so fast, he vaguely heard a few pops from his neck and back but paid them no mind. “Oh god,” he said under his breath nervously straightening out his clothes. “Can I go wake up George? I need to hold him.”

“Don’t you dare.” Harry hissed, grabbing Louis by the arm so that he followed him to the door. “I don’t need two cranky boys on my hands.” he said playfully, and without giving Louis another moment to think about it he opened the garage door.

The first to make their way up was Gemma, and when she locked eyes on Louis she dropped her bags and ran right into his arms hugging him so tight that Harry was momentarily worried he was going to be suffocated.

“Hi big sister, yes I missed you too. Oh, I know we haven’t seen each other in months…” Harry playfully muttered under his breath as he scooted around them to run out and help Anne. “Hi Mummy.” He greeted, opening the door to help her out and immediately pulling her into his arms. “Missed you.” He sighed into her neck, nuzzling in even closer. Because although he was well over six feet tall he was always going to be a ‘mummy’s boy’.

“Hi love,” she said happily, running her fingers through his short hair, tightening her arm around his shoulders. “I love your hair like this, love. Makes you look proper handsome.” She pulled away to cradle his cheeks in both hands, looking at his new haircut from every angle she could. “I miss those little curls though.”

Harry laughed and shook his head, stepping out of her grasp so he could grab her bags from the boot. “Mum you were literally with me when I chopped it all off!” He laughed again, grabbing her hand to lead her up to the house. “George is still asleep, he should be waking up soon.” he explained when he saw her looking around, no doubt for her little grandson. “And hopefully Louis hasn’t offed himself with nerves in this time that I left him alone…” Harry was joking obviously, but he was truly worried about the older lad. He had been so stressed out about meeting his mum, it made him feel slightly guilty.

“Oh that boy…” Anne said quietly, rolling her eyes playfully as they walked in through the mud room to the kitchen where Louis and Gemma were puttering around the kitchen making tea. Anne and Louis had spoken on the phone a few more times after their initial ‘meeting’, and Anne was already incredibly fond of the man. He was kind, and witty, but still so polite that she couldn’t help but love him - she also thought he was foolish for being so nervous.

“Louis, love.” She greeted, kicking off her shoes quickly before walking up to the Yorkshire lad and pulling him into a tight hug. “It’s lovely to finally meet you, darling.” She said quietly rubbing her right hand up and down his tense back.

Louis let out the breath that he had been holding for the past week and practically melted into the hug already feeling a thousand times lighter. “Hi Anne.” He greeted back, tightening his arms around the women. There was just something about a mother’s hug that he’s missed so much, he was going to prolong this as long as he possibly could.

The two stood there until both the sounds of the kettle and the Styles siblings bickering were too loud to ignore. Louis finally pulled away smiling at Anne for the first time (in person) since she had kind of snuck up on him beforehand and turned away to tend to the tea.

Anne walked over to the pantry, instantly looking like she was at home as she went in and pulled down the box of tea bags along with a box of cookies for everyone to munch on. “Alright you two, let me enjoy having my two children together without wanting to kill you both.”

Gemma paused from where she was fussing with Harry’s hair, solely to rile him up, and glanced over at their mother who was handing out the cuppas. She gave Anne the most innocent smile she could muster before turning to Louis and raising her eyebrows. “So how has living with this one been? Does he drive you absolutely crazy?”

Gemma giggled at the combination of Louis throwing his head back to laugh and Harry’s petulant “ _Heeeeeey!_ ” that he whined out. She leaned over and pinched his cheeks so he would know that she was only joking, pleasantly learning that he was blushing. In all her years of knowing her brother and seeing him interact with other people she had never once seen him blush like this, usually because he was the one causing the blush with how charming he naturally was. She was going to have to explore this, most definitely.

“Oh I absolutely love it.” Louis said honestly, leaning his hip against the counter by the sink so that he could see everyone. “But George is definitely my favorite part about living here, sorry H.” He laughed, smiling into his next sip of tea when all Harry did was shrug his shoulders.

After their tea had been drained, Anne and Harry migrated into the small dining room that was off the kitchen hoping to sort through all the boxes that had come in the post that held both George’s birthday presents and all the decorations for his party. It had been decided that the small party was going to be Disney themed, because George was absolutely obsessed - and every time Harry pulled out a little paper plate, or the little party favors his heart felt like it could just about burst. He couldn’t wait to see the look on George’s face when he saw all the decorations.

The plan was that George would go down for his normal nap at half noon and hopefully, if everything went according to plan, the three adults could prepare the house and set up all the decorations while everyone else arrived. So that by the time three rolled around and George woke up everyone would be here to surprise him.

Louis and Gemma had gone to Louis’ bedroom, hoping to use the last half hour of George’s naptime to wrap all their birthday gifts and hide them in Louis’ closet. Harry’s had already been wrapped for the past two weeks, because he was that kind of parent, but the little bits and bobs that Louis had ordered for the little boy were still sitting in the post box that had been shoved under his bed.

Gemma was finished with her gifts, a few outfits and some new books, within fifteen minutes and had taken to laying on Louis’ bed channel surfing while Louis struggled to tame the wrapping paper. “You’re absolutely hopeless aren’t you?”

“Oi,” He huffed, sticking his tongue out while he tried to tape down the corner and keep the rest of it all flat. “I always bought all the stuff and me sisters would wrap it all for me. We used to assign it so that they would be wrapping each others stuff.” he laughed finally pinning down the last corner and leaning back against the bed to stretch out his back.

Gemma rolled her eyes playfully, even though he couldn’t see her and rolled off the bed to help him out. “This is actually painful. Just give it all to me.” She said laughing unwrapping what he had just done to start fresh. The next time she looked up was after she successfully, and neatly, wrapped the box which turned out to be a Moana figurine play set. Her eyes only glanced at Louis before her attention was drawn to the several boxes beside him, “Did you buy him the whole store?” She asked in complete disbelief.

Louis laughed and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “I may have gone a bit overboard...but I just love spoiling people. Especially cute little boys..”

“You’re so whipped…” Gemma muttered quietly dodging the kick that Louis sent her way. She let her eyes wander over all the gifts that Louis had bought, there was a miniature football net with what looked like little football boots, a few of the older Disney movies (Peter Pan and Toy Story) on dvds, and pajama sets with George’s favorite characters that she knew the little boy would actually love.

“But to be fair, this is all going to be from myself and my siblings. So it’s really not that bad when you think about all the people that are involved.” he said quickly trying to defend himself. George never asked for anything outrageous - Harry had raised him so well to be appreciative and grateful for whatever he was given. And, c’mon...you only turn three once.

It was obvious that Gemma would have continued to tease him so Louis jumped up onto his bed and turned the telly up a few more notches, flashing her a smile when she tried to complain. She finished everything though after another twenty minutes or so and after everyone’s gifts had been shoved into his closet they both laid back on the bed quickly getting absorbed in the episode of Friends.

“Have you heard from your ex at all?”

Louis jumped slightly and looked over at the older girl frowning until his brain caught up to him and he understood what she was asking him. “No…” he said slowly. “Should I have?”

Gemma shrugged and sat up against the pillows a bit more, “No I mean...after you left Elizabeth and the rest of the team filed a lawsuit straight away. Last I heard they were still waiting to hear back from his lawyers. I don’t really get told a lot since I’m still only an intern but…” she shrugged again and paused so she could put her hair up into a topknot. “I guess I’m just surprised that he leaked that and then didn’t try to contact you for money or something.”

Louis hummed and ran his fingers through his hair, “I’m not all that surprised though, I mean...Xander isn’t the smartest. He probably did this in the middle of the night when he was drunk and now that it’s out he’s probably shitting himself, especially now that there is a lawsuit involved.” Louis explained shoving his toes underneath the throw blanket at the end of his bed, “Don't get me wrong, he’s a piece of shit - but he’s not malicious. At least he wasn’t when we were together.”

Gemma nodded along to everything that he was saying and was just about to respond when the bedroom door creaked open. She watched on in amusement as Louis jumped up and knelt on the floor with his arms wide open, only confused for a few seconds until the door pushed open the rest of the way and George ran in right into Louis’ chest. “Hi Georgie!” Louis said quietly, laying himself back onto the bed with George on his chest. “Look who came for a visit!” He whispered excitedly, using the moment of distraction to pluck the paci from between the toddlers pouty lips.

From his spot cuddled up on Louis’ chest, George used a chubby hand to knuckle at his eyes and yawn before glancing over at his aunt. “Auntie!” he cheered reaching his hand out so she would hold it but not making any moves to leave Louis’ arms.

“Hi bubby!” Gemma smiled holding his wrist so she could press a kiss to the palm of his hand. “I can’t believe you’re almost three! I remember when you were an itty bitty baby!” She raised her eyebrows so that George would laugh. She was just about to suggest that the three of them head out into the living room with the other two, but before she could open her mouth George gasped and looked up at Louis with his squinted eyes since he must have forgotten his little glasses.

“Lou! Gotta potty!”

Louis jumped up and ran out of the room leaving Gemma still sat on the bed completely confused. She laughed and switched the telly off before wandering back out to the living room plopping down on the couch next to Harry. “George is up but I think him and Lou are still in the toilet.” She explained grabbing a blanket to cover her lap with.

Harry smiled to himself and got up, turning first into George’s room to switch off the fairy lights and grab the little glasses left on the side table before walking back towards the bathroom. “Knock knock.” he said, smiling at the sight that greeted him.

George was sat on his little potty, with his little pajama pants thrown haphazardly by the tub. And Louis was sat on the edge of the tub waiting to help when needed.

“Hi Dada!” George said happily placing his hands on his bare knees.

“Hi baby,” Harry hummed walking forward and putting the toilet lid down so that he could sit on top of it. “Have you gone potty, yet?” he slid the glasses over his head and made sure that the strap wasn’t too tight that kept them in place on the toddler’s face.

George sighed and shook his head pouting slightly. “Hey that’s okay, this can be a little tricky but you’ll get used to it.” Harry said immediately, smoothing his hand over the top of the toddler’s head to try and tame his bed head.

Louis smiled and slid down to the ground so that he was eye level with George, “I know just the trick.” he said poking George’s cheek so that he would smile before reaching behind himself and turning on the tub, the sound of running water instantly filling the room.

It was close to ten minutes later that George finally jumped up, smiling so wide his eyes were little slits. Harry and Louis exaggerated their cheering and clapping until the little boy was pink in the cheeks he was so proud of himself. “C’mon baby, this means you get a sticker and cookie!” Harry said excitedly after he had helped George wash his hands.

“Nana!” George gasped once Harry had walked out into the living room, immediately starting to reach for her. “I went potty like a big boy!” he said proudly snuggling into her arms once he was passed over to her.

“Oh pumpkin!” Anne said happily, pressing lots of kisses to George’s cheeks and head. “You’re growing up so fast!” Anne followed Harry over to the fridge where the sticker chart was while Louis sat on the couch with Gemma.

“I can’t believe he’s already doing potty training.” Gemma hummed, not wanting to believe that her nephew was as old as he actually was. “It honestly feels like just yesterday that he was born.” she laughed.

Louis smiled at her, jumping slightly when the couch beside him dipped under Harry’s weight.  
“It was all Lou. I had been trying to introduce the idea for months and George was never interested. Then Louis mentions it and George wants to do it.” Harry playfully rolled his eyes, gently shoving Louis’ shoulder.

“Oi, it’s not my fault that the kid loves me.” Louis laughed, feeling his cheeks start to get a little hot, and leave it to Harry to have to call attention to it by pinching at his cheeks.

 

The rest of the night and majority of the next morning was all just dedicated to cleaning. Not that Harry ever let his house get messy, but living with a toddler and Louis definitely warranted some tidying. While Harry was in charge of the house, Louis was in charge of occupying George. The two spent the morning in the back garden playing on the swingset, and enjoying the cool October morning air. George was so tired when they came back in that he didn’t even fight his nap, although he insisted on sleeping in _Lou’s bed_.

“Do you know when your family is coming?” Anne asked excitedly, as she went about setting out all the platters of food on the counters.

“My step dad texted me about an hour ago, him and both sets of twins are on their way. The older two had something else they have to do but they’ll be by later.” Louis said happily, starting to feel giddy just knowing he was so close to seeing his family again.

Liam and Niall bustled in from the garage, using that space to blow up all the balloons. Harry was pleased to find out this morning when the two arrived, that Louis and both his best friends got along right off the bat, not that he was surprised or anything he was just happy everyone genuinely liked each other.

“Where do you think H wants these?” Liam asked, directing the question at Louis.

“I know he definitely wants the three on the mailbox out front. And the rest of them we can just spread them all out.” Louis said, looking around for the curly lad as he and Liam started to distribute the balloons. He tied the Mickey Mouse one onto the coffee table where all the presents were placed and couldn’t help but smile. George was going to lose it.

“Now it’s just the waiting game.” Gemma sighed flopping down onto the couch.

Louis glanced over at her and laughed. “I see dramatic is a Styles family trait?”

“Oi!”

“Hey Lou! I think they’re here!” Harry called from the front door, successfully interrupting Gemma’s comeback.

He made it out to the front garden in record time, his eyes instantly finding Dan’s black range rover. “Oh my God,” he whispered to himself before taking off across the yard. Dan had just stepped out when Louis collided into his body, laughing wetly as he felt the older man’s arms come up around him in a tight hug.

“Jeez Lou, you’re not ten anymore. You’re going to take me down one of these days.” Dan laughed, fondly thinking back on all the times that he would come home from work and little ten year old Louis would hide behind the tree in the front yard only to jump out at him and hug him like koala bear.

“Sorry,” Louis laughed, pulling away slightly to wipe his eyes, “I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw you pull up.”

Dan smiled and pushed Louis’ hair from out of his eyes. “We missed you too, babe. But it’s all over now yeah? We’re all together again like a family should be.”

Louis smiled even wider, quickly hugging Dan one more time before he heard the knocking coming from the back seat.

“You ready?” Dan asked, waiting for Louis to nod in approval before he opened the back door and four small bodies all lunged at him.

“Lou!”

Louis laughed happily, kneeling himself down on the ground while simultaneously trying to hug all four of his siblings. Ernest was smushed up against his left collarbone, while Daisy claimed the right one. And Phoebe and Doris had each claimed a hip, all chattering away and begging for his attention.

He wasn’t sure how long they all sat there, he vaguely heard Harry and Dan exchanging greetings from somewhere behind him but he paid them no mind until all the ‘babies’ finally let go of him. He finally stood up and brushed off his pants, picking up both of the youngest twins and setting them each on a hip. “C’mon, let’s go inside”

He found Dan sitting with Anne, the two already deep in a conversation. He headed towards them first and introduced his siblings to Anne and Gemma who had wandered over when she saw him come in.

“Lou this where you live now?” Ernest asked curiously looking around the room with wide eyes.

“Looks cozy.” Doris hummed, wiggling slightly until he let her down so she could wander back to the room that she saw all the toys in.

“Yeah babe, want to meet my friend Harry? He lives here too.” He explained to his brother, walking around the counter towards Harry who was fussing in the fridge.

“H, this is Ernie.” He said happily, feeling his cheeks start to ache when he saw Harry pull his head out and immediately coo at Earnest.

“Hi Ernie! My names Harry, would you like a juice?” Harry asked, holding out an apple juice and a grape juice so that the boy could pick, giggling when the four year old’s eyes lit up.

“Oh he’s in love with you now.” Louis laughed setting Ernest on the floor with an extra juice and the mission of going to give it to his sister.

Harry waited until the little boy wandered off already looking completely at home and smiled at Louis. “So, are you all better now? Did you have any reason to be nervous?”

“Yeah yeah, just say it. You told me so.” Louis laughed rolling his eyes, but reaching forward to pull the younger lad into a hug. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you properly though.”

Harry hugged him back tight, furrowing his eyebrows a little bit. He was just about to respond when he heard George over the monitor. “We’re not done talking about this…” he said seriously, pulling away to go and get his baby.

“Alright everyone, let’s find some hiding spots. Georgie is awake!” Louis announced to the room, grabbing his youngest siblings to ‘hide’ behind the couch with as all the other adults found similar spots.

It only took Harry a few minutes to come back out and Louis really wished he had been recording George’s reaction, but he will never ever be able to forget the look on the boys face when he saw all the decorations and people in his home. “Surprise!” “Happy Birthday!” was both chorused out resulting in the three year old giggling uncontrollably.

“You weren’t lying Lou, he’s precious.”

A few hours had passed, the presents were opened and the cake had been had so everyone was all just hanging around, still showering George with attention. Currently, he was cuddled up on Louis’ lap for a little break, and Louis had been humming songs into the boys hair.

The yorkshire lad glanced over at his step father and smiled wide, looking back down to where George was playing with his fingers. “Georgie, did you get to meet my dad Dan?” Louis asked the three year old, watching as George looked over at the blonde man curiously.

“You my Lou’s Dada?” he asked in awe, wiggling his body a little so he was facing the other man a little better.

Louis giggled into George’s hair watching as Dan smiled at the toddler, turning his own body so that he was more sideways on the couch. “I am! We don’t look much each other though, huh?”

“Talk funny like my Lou.” George giggled, burying his face into Louis’ neck.

“That’s cause we’re both from Doncaster babe.” Louis explained, not being able to stop the laughter in his voice.

George hummed and nodded along to what he was saying, content with what he was hearing. He leaned back into the older man’s chest and got himself comfortable as he observed everyone enjoying the party.

After another ten minutes the Tomlinson/Deakin children all squeezed themselves between Louis and Dan on the couch. George was startled slightly, since he really hadn’t interacted with the other kids yet - so far spending the majority of his party in someone’s arms.When Louis explained to him who they were, that they were his family, the toddler’s eyes alarmingly started welling up.

“Wha- Georgie?” Louis asked concerned as the boy wiggled himself away from and started searching for his father.

“Dada! Dada!” He whimpered out, finally finding Harry in the kitchen. Harry immediately dropped to his knees, completely forgetting about his conversation with Liam as he saw the tears streaming down his sons face. “Babe? Baby what happened? What’s wrong?” He asked alarmed, looking up at Louis who looked heartbroken as George sobbed into his chest.

“Harry I don’t know what happened…” Louis said honestly, feeling his heart break as he watched the three year old growing hysterical into the younger lad’s neck. He could feel everyone’s concerned eyes on the three of them, but paid them no mind as he dropped to his knees trying to rub the boy’s back.

“ _No_! No Lou!” he shouted, choking on his cries. He wouldn’t even look at the older lad, but he was still trying to valiantly push the older man’s hands away from his back.

“Hey, hey. Calm down baby..” Harry whispered standing up and shooting what he hoped was a reassuring smile at Louis. “We’ll be right back. Everything's fine, yeah? I’m just going to go and calm him down.”

Louis watched with his heart in his throat as Harry quickly scurried down the hallway towards his own bedroom. This was supposed to be the best day of George’s life and it had been for a good while. But now - suddenly, Louis felt like because of himself, it wasn’t anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Georgie :(
> 
> feel free to leave suggestions/requests for future chapters!! xx


	5. Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :)

Harry quickly walked down the short hallway towards his bedroom, sighing in relief when he was finally able to shut the door and hide them away for a few minutes. He was cradling George’s head where it was still buried in his neck, the whole area of his skin was hot and wet with his son’s tears. “Shh, Georgie. Everything’s alright baby.” Harry hummed, walking over to his bed and laying down, taking a moment to pull up a blanket around them.

George pulled his head away for the first time since he first ran to him and fixed him with as stern a glare as he could possibly muster, in his current condition. “No Dada. I already nap.”

Harry couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out, from his son’s disgruntled face or what he had just said, he wasn’t too sure. But, nonetheless he gently removed the foggy glasses and used his shirt sleeve to wipe at all the tears. “We’re not taking a nap, baby. Let’s just cuddle for a few minutes huh?” He subtly felt at George’s forehead for a possible fever, but that was hopeless since he was all worked up and sweaty anyways.

Harry grabbed the remote and flipped to a kids channel, letting George relax into his chest, still sniffling, but slowly calming down as he started watching _Paw-Patrol_.

“Can you tell Dada what happened now?” He asked quietly, after a good ten minutes of steadily rubbing his back and occasionally wiping his little eyes.

George looked back towards him and in an instant his lip was wobbling again. “I so sad, Dada!” he choked out, covering his face with his chubby little hands.

“Hey, hey...C’mon baby. Tell Dada what happened so I can make it all better. I hate seeing you so upset, lovey.” Harry said quickly, pressing little kisses all along the toddler’s hairline.

“My Lou going buh-bye..” he whimpered clutching at Harry’s shirt collar, “I no want him going buh-bye! But he has a brudder and family!”

Harry instantly understood what had happened and immediately starting trying to soothe the boy. “He does have a family, sweetheart. Just like you do too.” Harry explained, using his thumb to wipe away the constant stream of tears on the toddler’s little cheeks. “But hey, you’re his only Georgie, and he’s not leaving you for a long, long time. His sisters and brothers came here today to celebrate your birthday, because you’re so important to Lou, and he wanted to share this special day with them.” Harry made sure to talk slow enough so that the three year old could hopefully follow along with everything that he was saying.

Georgie sniffled again a few minutes later and looked up at his father, sucking on his bottom lip. “I yell and not be nice to Lou. I make Lou sad?” He asked quietly, toying with Harry’s shirt collar.

Harry smiled gently, and placed a kiss to George’s lips as he sat them both up. “I don’t think Lou is sad, but I do think we should go give him a big hug. Huh?” He suggested, and although he knew for a fact that the Yorkshire lad was probably heart broken there was no way he was going to tell his three year old son that.

After a quick stop to the bathroom to wash George’s face and glasses, the two made their way back out to the suspiciously quiet front of the house. “Dada where they go?” George asked curiously from his spot on his hip.

“Good question, bub.” Harry laughed, looking around curiously until movement from the back garden caught his eyes. “Oh! I found them.”

George turned his head and giggled watching what looked like a little football game in the process. Liam and Niall were standing in both nets, trying to save all the kicks made by the kids - they ‘missed’ most of them. When Harry pushed the door open, it caught the attention of Dan who was closest to the door, “Everything okay?” he asked curiously.

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, smiling at the older man, “I’m so sorry about that.” He didn’t want anything to become awkward between them, and sighed in relief when Dan shook off his apology.

“Oh c’mon don’t apologize, I mean you can’t blame him anyways. We’re still strangers to him, and all he knew was that all these new kids came out of nowhere and started stealing some of Louis’ attention. He had every right.” Dan said laughing and shrugging his shoulders, in a ‘ _kids will be kids_ ’ kind of way.

Harry smiled at the man gratefully, squeezing his arm in thanks as he walked past him towards where he saw Louis sitting between his mum and sister - all three watching the footie game in front of them with big smiles on their faces.

“Hey Lou, I have someone who wants to talk to you.” Harry said when he walked up behind the older lad’s chair, smiling reassuringly at him when he turned around.

Neither commented on Louis’ red, puffy eyes.

Louis stood up, walking around the chairs before hesitantly reaching his arms out for George, instantly sighing in relief when the toddler leaned towards him without a moment’s hesitation. “Georgie.” He sighed, instantly feeling a weight come off of his chest as he felt George cuddle right into his neck, like he’s done so many times before. “Missed you, little lad.”

“I sorry Lou. Please no go buh-byes.” George said, only pulling his face from Louis’ neck long enough to press a sloppy kiss to the older lad’s lips, cuddling right back into the safety of his neck.

Louis let out a little laugh, looking towards Harry because he was utterly relieved. “I’m not going anywhere, you don’t have to worry about that.” He soothed, squeezing the boy just a little bit tighter to him, waiting for the little huff he knew that was coming.

“Lou! Tryna squish me!” George squealed, kicking his little legs out as he laughed breathlessly.

Louis laughed and pretended to nibble at George’s shoulder. “You’re just too cute!” he playfully growled, using his right hand to ghost tickles over his ribs.

“Georgie! I’ll save you!” Louis heard from somewhere behind him, only having a second before Niall was swooping to ‘rescue’ the three year old. “Quick!” The Irish lad laughed holding the boy so that he was cradled in his arms and ran back towards the footie game. Liam and all the kids clapped for George’s dramatic entrance and quickly included him in the game - even though he spent the majority of it on the Irish lads hip.

“I’m gonna go and get a drink, can I get anyone anything from inside?” Louis asked, taking note of what everyone was saying.

“I’ll come help you Lou.” Harry stood up from where he had sat between his mum and sister, knowing all too well that Louis would end up dropping something if he wasn’t helped.

“Are you alright?” He asked the Yorkshire lad when they were a safe distance away from the crowd of people.

“Yeah, feel awful though that I made him cry. On his birthday of all days.” Louis laughed humorlessly, giving a sad shrug of his shoulders.

“Lou c’mon...he’s three. He can’t-he’s got all these emotions and he doesn’t know how to tell us when he’s upset. Please don’t take it to heart.” Harry said once they reached the kitchen. When Louis still wouldn’t look at him though he reached out and gently tugged at his arm, giving him a reassuring smile. “He just loves you so much, you know?”

Louis let out a shaky breath and ducked his head trying to compose himself, he didn’t want to cry again. “I love him too, yeah? I mean this time last year I didn’t even know you guys...and now it’s like I can’t imagine my day-to-day life without him constantly demanding my attention and you constantly trying to force feed me healthy shit.”

“Oi!” Harry laughed instantly, pinching the skin of Louis’ arm that he had still been holding, which...oops. “You love all that ‘healthy shit’! Don’t start getting cheeky with me now, Tomlinson!” He tried going for a glare but by Louis’ amused face he knew he wasn’t very intimidating.

“Disgruntled kitten, that’s what you are.” Louis muttered with a shake of his head, turning back to the fridge to get out all the water bottles and juice boxes.

 

Lottie and Fizzy showed up right as they were having their ‘second dinner’ as Anne liked to say, seamlessly fitting in with everyone.

 _“Don’t disappear like that ever again you asshole_.” Lottie had whispered in his ear, mindful of the little ears surrounding them. Fizzy had looked suspiciously teary-eyed, but wouldn’t admit to it. Only hugging Louis tightly for as long as she possibly could.

“Es-cuse me, my Lou…” Louis was brought out of his reunion with his two eldest sisters and looked down at Georgie, who was suspiciously crossing and uncrossing his legs.

He smiled at the two girls and then knelt on the ground, taking ahold of the toddler's hands and giving them a light squeeze. “Yes my little lad?” He asked earning a dimpled grin.

“I gotta potty again..” he whispered quietly, clearly embarrassed to be saying this in front of everyone, the girls especially.

But it meant so much that he was coming for help, to Louis of all people, that Louis couldn’t help but grin at him. “That’s such a good lad for telling me, Georgie!” He whispered appraisingly, quickly picking him up and heading towards the bathroom to take care of his business.

When the two were all done Louis made a note on the time chart Harry had in the bathroom (to keep track of when/how often George went) and then they made their way back into the party. Louis went right to the sticker chart on the fridge and let George place a blue star at the top of the page. “Hey Lou.”

Louis turned around and smiled at Harry, “Georgie tell Dada what you just did again.”

“Dada I go potty!” The toddler said bashfully, turning pink under the praise he received from both men. After a quick cuddle with his father, the three year old wiggled to be put down and scurried over to the living room where Liam was starting a game of freeze dance.

“So mum just told me that she brought an extra sheet cake, it’s in the garage fridge. I didn’t know if you maybe wanted to sing again and then your two sisters can get a piece...since you know, Niall completely demolished the first one.”

Louis laughed and shook his head, “I think you mean inhaled, mate.” He looked over to the Irish lad fondly, he had Doris perched on his hip in a completely ridiculous pose that he had no hope of maintaining - but it was endearing nonetheless.

Realistically, Louis knew that he had only met Niall and Liam less than twelve hours ago - but he was already able to tell that the two men were quickly becoming very close friends. Just seeing how they interacted with George alone would have been enough, but seeing them with his own siblings told him all that he needed to know.

 

“That sounds great, H. Thanks so much for including them.” Louis smiled, giving the younger lad’s bicep a squeeze.

“Of course… I figured they’ll all be here quite a lot now yeah? George has already asked when Doris and Ernest can come back over.” Harry laughed, looking over at all the kids and not being able to stop the smile from stretching across his face. “Although, I don’t think he’s grasped the fact that Daisy and Phoebe are two separate people.”

Louis threw his head back looking over at the boy in question fondly. Currently he was sitting on the rug on Lottie’s lap while she read him one of his new books. “You don’t have to do that you know. I’m already imposing enough as it is.”

“Oh shut up would you. I kinda like having a loud house. It’s always been so quiet, even when I was growing up - Gem and I never really made that much noise...it’s nice having the house full of life for once.”

Louis ducked his head to smile again, looking up in time to see the younger lad blushing. “Let’s get dinner sorted…” he said clapping his hands. “And then we can do cake part two, maybe we should lock Niall in the bathroom or something…” He joked, pleased when Harry snorted into his drink.

A loud dramatic gasp made the whole room fall quiet and Louis looked over to see Niall crossing his arms,“I heard that!”

Once Harry finished getting all the dirty plates into the sink to worry about later, he gave Louis a thumbs up to start distracting the kids so he could sneak out and get the cake. “Li!” he called out, motioning for the older lad to follow him. Walking towards the garage, Harry could hear Louis telling an animated story about the time he went to Disney World and met Mickey himself, clearing doing an incredible job of distracting everyone.

“What’s up, H?” Liam asked curiously, shutting the garage door behind himself which cut off Louis’ stories.

“We’re going to sing again, want to help me with the candles?” Harry asked, opening the fridge and removing the plastic top of the cake. While the cake was still on the shelf though he started placing in the candles around the border.

Once he was satisfied with the placement of each one he stood up holding it with both hands, turning to where Liam had found a box of matches in one of the cabinets. “What’s with the two cakes?”

“Mum brought this one for last night, so we could get him used to the idea of blowing out the candles again. But we all fell asleep kinda early and completely forgot. So why waste it?” Harry explained, chuckling under his breath.

Liam huffed out a laugh, mindful of the flame he was currently trying to use to light the candles. “You only turn three once, right? Why not have two birthday cakes - hell we should’ve got him three!”

Just at hearing that Harry rolled his eyes fondly, “I’d rather not have my son develop cavities in all his teeth.” He bit his lip when Liam chuckled and ducked his head nervously for a moment, looking back up before he could lose the nerve. “What do you think of Louis?”

“Pardon?” Liam asked, looking at the younger lad.

“What do you think of Louis?” Harry repeated, slower this time. He could feel his face getting hot again, but he blamed it all on the candles.

“Well,” Liam started, already knowing where this was going. “I think he’s a great bloke. I mean - everyone loves him, yeah? His music is everywhere. But he’s really down to earth which was a pleasant surprise. And he’s absolutely smitten with Georgie, but I mean who isn’t?” he said laughing slightly, “Why Harry, what do you think of Louis?”

“We should probably get this in the house before the candles burn all the way to the bottom.” Harry said quickly, walking back towards the door, ignoring Liam’s cackling.

Once Louis caught sight of him walking through the kitchen he quickly clapped a few times and started leading the song, for the second time that day.

George positively beamed, shuffling on his knees towards the coffee table where his father had set down the cake. Once the song was finished, George squeezed his eyes shut cutely, taking a moment to think over his wish before puffing out his cheeks and blowing all the candles out in one go.

“Yay!” Everyone chorused around him, resulting in a cute little blush to rise to his cheeks.

“Alright, raise your hand if you would like a piece of cake - Niall put your hand down!” Harry said narrowing his eyes at the Irish lad trying desperately not to laugh like everyone else was around him. He took a head count and then grabbed the cake to bring to the kitchen counter.

He had just placed the last piece on a plate for Dan when he felt little fingers start tugging at his belt loop. “Hello my little love, want a bite of Dada’s cake?” He made sure George was situated in his arms before scooping up a bite to bring to the toddlers pouty lips. He knew without a doubt that the piece that was originally given to the three year old was probably still on the coffee table, since there was too many exciting distractions for him to feed himself.

Together, the two finished the piece of cake and once the last bite was swallowed George yawned and cuddled up into his father’s neck. “Tired lovey?” Harry asked with a small smile on his face, using his right hand to rub the boys back.

“Mhmmm.” Georgie hummed out pulling his face away to knuckle at his eyes. “Best birv-day ever Dada.” he said bashfully, pressing a clumsy kiss to his father’s cheek, winding his little arms around his neck in a hug.

Harry grinned so wide, he was sure he looked slightly crazy. “Oh I’m so happy, baby.” He whispered, returning the hug that he was receiving - trying to ignore his suddenly blurry eyes. He glanced over at the stove clock and bit his lip - it was only half six, there was no way George would ever sleep through the night if he went to bed now so Harry racked through his brain to think of something else to do. “Hey, do you want to go ask all your friends if they’d like to watch a movie in Dada’s bed?” he asked curiously.

George took a few moments to think it over, so long in fact that Harry was momentarily nervous that he had fallen asleep on his shoulder, but just before he spoke George picked his head up and grinned at him. “Toy Story?” he asked curiously.

“Anything you want!” Harry said giggling, loving how happy his son had looked all day. “Shall we put some jammies on?” he asked poking at Georgie’s pudgy little tummy.

“New ones!” He practically squealed kicking out his legs in pure excitement.

Harry walked through the living room towards George’s room, stopping only to tell Dan about their plans, and then again right in front of the bathroom. “Do you need to go potty?”

George shook his head grinning over his father’s shoulder at Louis who was making a funny face at him. “No Dada.” he explained, oblivious when his father checked the time chart to make sure he was telling the truth. He had just gone what looked like twenty minutes ago with Anne, most likely while he was out in the garage getting the cake - but he made a mental note to ask again in a half hour.

When they reached George’s bedroom he set the boy down on the rug and went about searching through the hamper with all the clean clothes, he had immediately put in all the pajamas he received from Louis and his sister the minute George had opened them knowing that his son would want to wear one of them that night.

While George was playing in the corner with all his stuffed animals, Harry grabbed a pull-up and laid out all the new pajama sets on the edge of George’s bed so that the three year old could pick out which ones he wanted to wear.

Once Harry called him over, George took one look at the four sets before looking back at Harry. “What Lou get me?”

Harry rolled his eyes playfully, but pointed to the two sets on the end. “Ummm this one, please!”

Harry nodded, and went about helping his son change his clothes. “Oh don’t you look so cute!” He gushed, situating George’s glasses back on his nose, “Should we go show Lou how nice these [jammies](https://www.shopdisney.com/mickey-mouse-pj-pals-set-for-boys-1435175) fit you?” he asked excitedly, picking up the three year old again and grabbing the movie on their way back out to the living room.

“Oh Georgie! Looking cool, little lad!” Louis called out, giving the toddler two thumbs up when he saw that he was wearing the pj’s he got for him.

“I could probably find something of George’s that would fit them if they wanted to change.” Harry said to Dan who had both four year olds sprawled across his lap.

“Oh no thank you, I’ve a change of clothes out in the car for them but the two buggers won’t get off me!” the older man laughed, tickling at his kid’s bellies.

“Alright c’mere you two messers..” Louis said scooping up his giggling siblings. “Let’s follow Georgie!” he said excitedly easily carrying both of them as he walked behind Harry towards his bedroom.

Once Dan gave them the pajamas, Louis changed both of his siblings in Harry’s ensuite before leading them back into the bedroom. Helping them both up and under the blankets where they immediately cuddled up with Georgie.

“Alright you three, have fun. Just call us if you need anything okay?” Harry said turning to the three kids after pressing play on the movie. He made sure all three were content and that the baby monitor on his side table was on and plugged in, just in case, before following the older lad out of the room.

“I give them twenty minutes before they’re all asl-” Harry gasped as his back was suddenly up against the wall outside his bedroom and his lips were pressed against Louis’. He froze for a moment, but it was obvious that the older lad was waiting for his signal so without letting himself think too much about the possible consequences, Harry brought his arms up around Louis’ neck and just let himself be kissed. It was when Louis squeezed his hip, while licking experimentally at his bottom lip that Harry felt his eyes roll back, his mouth dropping open slightly - which only spurred Louis on even more. One of them whimpered, he’s not quite sure who the sound came from but of course, that was when the moment had to be ruined.

“Harry!”

At the gasp of his name, Harry wrenched his face away to see his mother charging up towards them - suddenly feeling like he was a teenager again and just got caught kissing his boyfriend in his bedroom. Boyfriend - _what?_

“Anne I-”

“Mum plea-”

“Not near those innocent babies! Are you two crazy? At least shut the door all the way...my word!” She ignored both of them to scold, quieting her voice the closer she got though so she wouldn’t disturb the children. She huffed again and turned around to face the two, properly scolded men. Her eyes flitted between the two of them for a few long seconds before she clapped happily. Her whole demeanor completely changing from what it was not thirty seconds ago.

“Gemma owes me twenty pounds!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Friends!!
> 
> sorry this is a day late - it was a crazy weekend! that being said though, I have midterms this week. I'm going to do my best to get chapter six up on Thursday but I'm not making any promises.
> 
> Happy Reading! xx


	6. Six

It had been three weeks and nothing had changed.

Well not nothing, it was just that it was a rainy Monday morning and Harry felt like pouting. After the _Thing_ happened on George’s birthday, the two didn’t bring it up - which was another reason Harry was feeling kind of stroppy. There was definitely more touching, which Harry loved. Louis was constantly squeezing his hip in passing, or running his fingers through the little curls that were growing back around his temples, and sometimes (these were Harry’s favorite) the older lad would man-handle him on the couch until he was just how he wanted and they could comfortably cuddle together. But there hadn’t been another kiss.

Sometimes if Harry was lucky, Louis would kiss his cheek or even sometimes his forehead while they were cuddling, or when they parted from each other at bedtime but that was it. And Harry was pissed because he had been given a taste and wanted more, only Louis wouldn’t give it to him.

Harry shook his head and stood up from being slouched in front of the washing machine - George had his first accident the night before so all his sheets were currently scattered throughout the small room.

The garage door behind him started to open and since Louis and George were both out in the living room Harry grabbed the closest thing to him, George’s little clothes hamper, ready to bash whoever it was, “Jesus Liam.” Harry sighed when the older lad made his way in.

Liam looked up from his phone, and raised one eyebrow as he took in Harry’s position. “Really H? A hamper?”

Harry rolled his eyes, placing the white hamper back on top of the dryer. “I didn’t have a lot to choose from.” He defended, balancing the basket overflowing with clean clothes on his hip. “What are you doing here anyways?”

“Lou invited me over...I thought you told him to?”

Harry paused and looked back at the older lad, “No mate, I mean you’re always welcome here you know that- but I didn’t tell him to invite you.”

Liam shrugged, his face lighting up a moment later at the sound of George’s little giggles coming from the other room. “You go ahead, I’m just gonna go fold these but I’ll be out in a bit.”  
Harry turned and headed down to his bedroom, softly shutting the door behind him. He could hear his son’s little squeals at seeing his ‘Uncle’ picturing his little face scrunched up in pure joy at all the attention he was getting.

Once all the clothes were dumped on the bed, Harry got lost in folding the clothes and sorting them into piles. He had switched on his bluetooth speaker when he first came in, his hips swaying on their own to the sound of Ed Sheeran.

When he finally finished the last of the shirts, he placed them all back, still folded into the basket to put away later, when two arms circled his waist settling themselves across his torso.

“Jesus!” He gasped grabbing at his chest, glancing down at the arms and knowing it was Louis from the tattoos littering his skin,“I didn’t even hear you come in!”

Louis huffed out a laugh into the back of Harry’s neck, tightening his arms when the goosebumps it caused tickled his lips. “Missed you.”

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes, feeling the pout fighting it way back onto his face. “I was just folding the laundry, you saw me thirty minutes ago.”

“You’ve been avoiding me, don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

Harry’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, but before he could respond he was being pushed down onto his bed. “Louis get off of me!” he huffed, squirming slightly when he unsuccessfully tried to roll over to face the other man.

“No.” Louis grunted, swinging his right leg up and over both of Harry’s, trying to get him to stop wriggling so much. “Please tell me what I did wrong, I can tell you’re not happy with me.”

Harry stopped moving the second he heard the older lad, “Lou you didn’t do anything.”

“H c’mon, I might not have gone to uni but I’m not stupid.”

Harry could feel his whole face turning bright red at the realization of what was happening - Louis didn’t think anything of the kiss. It was probably because of the two beers he and Niall had had, and Harry was suddenly humiliated. “I was-it was nothing. I was just being silly.” He said quietly, turning his face into the pillow so that Louis wouldn’t see the pure embarrassment in his eyes. “I’m gonna go check on Georgie.”

“Oh bollocks.” Louis muttered underneath his breath, letting the younger lad wiggle for a moment so he could turn him towards his own body, his grip tightening once he was happy with how they were and he was able to relax into the pillows again.

“H, I feel so awful that I overstepped my boundaries. Please accept my apology for making everything awkward.” Louis said, wishing the younger lad would meet his eyes but he kept his face tucked down towards the pillows.

He felt more than saw Harry tense up though, quickly furrowing his eyebrows when he heard giggling into the pillows. “What-”

“Okay, there’s obviously been a misunderstanding. So let’s talk this out because I have no idea what the hell you’re going on about.” Harry said starting to feel a little bit hopeful that maybe just maybe things were going to turn out the way he wanted after all.

“I never should have kissed, it was never my intention to make you uncomfortable. I think I just read into everything a little bit too much- why are you looking at me like that? What did I say?” Louis asked obliviously, confused when all the younger lad did was stare at him.

“You think you made me uncomfortable.” Harry parroted back dumbly.

Louis nodded while taking a deep breath, “I should have let you set the pace. I mean this is your bloody house! Why would I ever think it was okay to just kiss you like that? And now you’ve been avoiding me and I can tell you’re upset with me. Please don’t make me find another place to live though…” Louis couldn’t bring himself to look Harry in the eyes, choosing instead to look at the swallows poking out from his shirt.

Harry laid there for a few long seconds before shaking his head, huffing out a laugh. “You’re an idiot.”

Louis squawked making to sit up but this time it was Harry who swung his leg over the older lad, only settling when he was perched on top of his thighs. “That’s right you heard me, you’re an absolute idiot.”

Louis furrowed his eyebrows, taking in Harry’s smiling face (he hadn’t seen this smile since George’s birthday - he missed it so much). “Can you at least tell me why I’m an idiot?” He let his hands settle on the tops of Harry’s thighs.

“You thought I was uncomfortable, when really I’ve been waiting for you to kiss me again and finish what you started.”

“I’m sorry-what?!” Louis shouted, letting his eyes drift to the younger lad’s exposed collarbones as he threw his head back in a boyish giggle. “You’ve got to be kidding me…” He huffed out, somehow managing to sit up and circle his arms around Harry’s torso to tug him into a tight hug.

“I thought I was an awful kisser, and that you regretted it…” Harry finally admitted once all the giggles died down. His hands traced their way up Louis’ chest and over his shoulder, finally settling in the hairs at the nape of his neck.

Louis took a moment to look at the man in front of him. His gaze dropped to his lips, the bottom one in particular which was currently caught between his teeth. Louis clucked his tongue, using his thumb to free the pouty lip and then smoothing it out across his pink cheek. “I thought you were just too nice to ask me to move out and get the hell away from you…”

“I guess we were both idiots.” Harry whispered, slouching slightly so that they were eye to eye, “Can I-”

“Come here.”

Harry usually would have complained about being interrupted but he didn’t waste any time as he surged forward connecting their lips, _finally_. The satisfied sigh that came out was completely involuntary, but it just made Louis pull him even closer by his hips. Somehow, they ended up falling back onto the pillows, completely oblivious to the outside world as Louis kept nibbling Harry’s bottom lip, swallowing every gasp and moan that he could like he was starved - which technically he was.

It had to have been fifteen minutes later, their hungry kisses slowing down to gentle pecks when there was three loud knocks against the bedroom door. “I have a three year old feeling very abandoned here and I would very much like to not be scarred when we come in here so put yourself together!”

Harry snorted, pulling himself away from Louis to sit against the pillows beside him, even though his spot on top of him was more comfortable. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times and wiped at his lips, grabbing a pillow to cover Louis’ crotch with. “Come in!” he called out, watching in amusement as the older lad had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

“Dada! You go missing!” George exclaimed the minute he saw his father. With the help of Liam he climbed up onto the bed and lunged at him, the force of his small body knocking Harry backwards.

“Ooph,” Harry gasped out at the impact but laughing immediately as he hugged back the three year old. “I wasn’t missing silly boy, I was just doing the laundry see?” he explained pointing over to the hampers still full with clean clothes.

“Nuh-uh..” Georgie pouted, playing with the collar of Harry’s shirt, “Li said you and my Lou were cuddling wivout Georgie.”

Harry fixed the man with a playful glare, who at least had the decency to blush, “How could we ever cuddle without you, Georgie? You’re the best at it!” Louis said, furrowing his eyebrows - the perfect picture of innocence.

Liam snorted from his spot at the end of the bed and only just managed to dodge Louis’s foot.

George beamed at both adults while cuddling against his father’s chest, “Li-Li, no tell Georgie lies!”

“I’m sorry Georgie! I was just being silly!” Liam reached over to gently tug at the toddler’s socked foot, obviously having been forgiven when he was pounced on just like Harry had been.

The rest of the week flew by in a flash, and before Louis even realized what was happening it was the weekend before Halloween. George had been on a kick, practicing his knocking on every closed door to exclaim “tricky-treaties!”. Louis had been planning on staying back at the house and monitoring the bowl of candy on the front porch while Harry and George walked around the neighborhood, but when the three year old learned the Yorkshire lad wouldn’t be going with them he cried for hours, breaking both men’s hearts.

“Louis, what do we do?” Harry asked slightly desperately, they were on the third day in a row of Georgie bursting into tears randomly throughout the day.

Louis looked up from his spot on the floor where he was trying to console the sobbing boy and bit his lip. “What is he being again?” He asked praying that something would come to him.

“Puh-lice off-cer.” Georgie hiccuped into his throat, pressing his sweaty face into Louis’ shoulder.

Louis took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he thought through ideas coursing through his mind. Obviously he was in hiding, he couldn’t just go out walking through the neighborhood regardless if George was upset because it was for all of their safety. He ran his hand up and down George’s back a few times before gasping, “I’ve got it!”

Harry startled from his spot on the couch and raised one eyebrow at the older lad, “What?”

“My Lou coming?” George asked desperately, looking up at the man in question with his squinted eyes.

Louis smiled down at the boy pressing a gentle kiss to his damp cheek, “Go sit with Dada, I know exactly what to do.” he said suddenly excited again, pausing only to make sure the toddler made it to the couch before jumping up and running towards his room.

“C’mon, I know I brought it…” he muttered as he dug through his closet on his hands and knees, digging through all the clothes that had fallen (or been thrown) to the floor. “Yes!” he hissed standing back up and quickly changing into the black and white striped long-sleeved shirt. He snatched his old and battered black beanie and used the scissors from Georgie’s craft box to make two holes.

“Are you coming back anytime soon?” Harry called out from the living room, amusement obvious in his voice.

“Oi give me a second!” Louis yelled back, grabbing the pillow case off of one of his pillows. “Close your eyes!”

He peaked out around the corner smiling when he saw Harry and George holding a couch pillow in front of their faces. “Does he have his glasses on?” He asked standing in front of them and waiting for Harry’s confirmation before taking the pillow away.

“Lou….what?” Georgie asked giggling hysterically at the sight of the man in front of him.

Harry looked at him with a small smile, shaking his head subtly. Louis forced himself to look away - who knows what would have happened if he didn’t.

“You can’t have a officer without some robbers!” he explained, bending his knees slightly so that he could pretend to be ‘sneaky’.

George gasped and covered his mouth with his little hands, “Dada! Lou gonna come!” he practically squealed.

“Yeah baby, Lou is gonna come with us.”

It turned out that Harry had a similar shirt so he was able to dress just like Louis, officially making them a ‘family’ according to George. Since Liam lived in a flat a few streets over, and didn’t have many kids on his street he came over to the Styles house to pass out candy for them while they took George out.

Harry had insisted that Liam took a picture of them before they left, strictly to send to their families - but if he also made it his phone and laptop background, well, Louis didn’t have to know that.

What Harry didn’t know was that Louis did the same thing.

“Who knew this was such a cute little neighborhood.” Louis said nearly two hours later as they walked back towards the house. George was well on his way to sleeping in his arms, completely tired out from running to house to house and seeing some of the other little kids.

Harry laughed quietly, holding onto George’s little pale filled to the brim with candy. “I love it here, everyone is so nice.” he waved at Mr. and Mrs.Smith who were sitting on their front porch while kids were still walking up to their house.

“What ever made you move here?” Louis asked curiously, sneaking his hand over and grasping Harry’s.

Harry blushed and shuffled closer to the older lad, “That’s a long story…” He laughed, biting at his bottom lip. “I’ll tell you someday.” he finished quietly.

Louis furrowed his eyebrows but let it go easily being able to sense that Harry was closing himself off. The rest of the walk was silent but comfortable, and when the house finally came into view Louis let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. It wasn’t that he thought someone had recognized him - he hadn’t shaved in a few days so the stubble dusting his cheeks was the complete opposite of the clean shaven Louis the public was used to seeing on magazines. And he had the beanie/mask covering the top half of his face, but he definitely felt more at ease just at the sight of the house.

Louis went straight to the bathroom with Georgie, gently waking him up and easing him onto the potty so that they could go to sleep. Once his hands were washed and teeth were brushed, Louis changed him into the pajamas that Harry left out on his bed and tucked him into his own bed. Last week they started just putting him in Louis’ bed so that he wouldn’t have to walk across the hall. “I’ll be in soon, lovey. Sweet dreams.” he whispered, pressing a kiss to George’s head before making his way back out to the living room.

“How was your night, Liam?” He asked, unceremoniously dropping himself down onto Liam’s lap.

The younger lad groaned trying to push Louis off his lap unsuccessfully, “It was lovely….saw some really cute costumes this year.” He finally gave up and flopped back on the pillow he had stolen from Harry’s room. “How about you?”

“I love it.” Louis gushed immediately, “George was so happy. We saw so many little kids and even some of the neighbors dressed up their dogs - I don’t think I’ll ever get the sight of a labradoodle dressed as The Queen out of my head for as long as I live.”

Liam’s eyes lit up as he laughed quietly, “They came round here too, I believe her name was Lucy.”

Harry came out a little while later, easily joining in on the conversation. He pouted though at the sight of Louis on Liam’s lap - only relaxing when Louis shifted over so that they were next to each other instead. Liam had put on Hocus Pocus for the three of them to watch, but since Harry was so tired he was sprawled across Louis, fast asleep after only thirty minutes.

“You make him so happy.”

Louis jumped slightly at the sound of Liam’s voice, blushing instantly since he had been not so subtly staring at the curly-haired lad’s face. “Pardon?”

Liam rolled his eyes playfully while shifting himself so that he was facing Louis better, “He’s been my best friend since we were in diapers...and I mean not to overstep because it’s Harry’s story to tell but he’s had a rough time of things recently. It’s just nice to see him smile so much.”

Louis bit his lip, tightening his arm around Harry. He was about to reply when Harry shifted, waking up just enough to bury his face in the older lad’s neck instantly relaxing while his breathing evened out again. “He’s just so special you know? I mean they both are - they both deserve the world and I just hope I’m good enough to give it all to them.” He sighed and ran his fingers through Harry’s hair, “Sometimes I worry that I’m not good enough for them...the last thing I want to do is put them in a bad situation but...my job can sometimes be known for that…”

“Hey stop,” Liam said effectively cutting off his rambling. “Harry is a big boy - he knows what he’s getting himself into. I think you worry too much.”

Louis laughed gently, shrugging as best he could with a grown man asleep on top of him. “I just owe him so much, and I can’t even take him out on a proper date because I’m in fucking hiding.”

“Who says you can’t take him out on a date?” Liam said with furrowed eyebrows, “You just have to get creative with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Liam started, running his fingers through his short hair as he thought, “What if you set up a nice dinner at my place? We could decorate the back garden with you know, candles and fairy-lights and maybe even a tablecloth to be extra fancy,” he paused when Louis giggled, “You know wine and dine him real nice. We can get take out from his favorite restaurant and completely surprise him. I’ll watch George obviously, but I swear to God if you two have sex anywhere in my home I will never speak to either of you again.” he finished pointing an accusatory finger at the older lad, incredibly serious.

Louis looked at the man in complete awe not believing what he was actually hearing. “You’d really help me do all that?”

“Of course, I mean like I said...he’s my best friend.” Liam paused looking down at rip in his jeans, “And you’re really important to him so that sort of makes you important to me…”

“Awww, Payno!” Louis gushed poking his toes into the younger lad’s ribs as best as he could with his limited mobility. “That’s actually not a bad idea though, thank you so much Liam.”

After they had the plan for the date established, they settled back in and finished the movie. “Harry love, c’mon let me walk you to bed..” Louis murmured quietly, rubbing his hand up and down the younger lad’s back.

Harry whined, high in his throat and pushed himself closer to Louis, grasping his shirt in his fists. “No...so warm.”

Louis smiled and pressed a kiss to his forehead, “I’ll tuck you in, love. I promise you won’t be cold.”

Harry sighed and mumbled something into Louis’ throat but the older lad couldn’t quite catch it. “What was that?” he asked gently, knowing how easily frustrated tired Harry could become.

“Will you and Georgie sleep with me tonight?”

And that time it was loud and clear. Louis blushed glancing over at Liam who was just smirking at his phone pretending not to listen. He wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Head down to your room, yeah? I’ll go grab Georgie.” Louis whispered, using his hands to start pulling the blanket off the two of them.

“I can’t...my legs are too sleepy…”

Louis rolled his eyes fondly and shook his head. “Alright you lazy oaf, let’s go.” he struggled a bit at first before he finally settled Harry in his arms. Harry pushed his face into Louis’ neck, a small, sleepy smile on his face. When Louis finally reached his room he set him down on the bed and helped him get himself situated against the pillows. “I’ll be right back, okay?” he whispered pressing a gentle kiss to Harry’s cheek.

“You can take my bed if you want. I just cleaned the sheets yesterday.”Louis said as he walked back through the living room.

Liam took a moment to look around the living room, “Alright, thanks mate.”

“Let me just grab him and the room is all yours.” Louis said walking the rest of his way into his room. He flicked on the side table light and smiled at the sight. George was cuddled up with Louis pillow, his face nuzzled down into the pillow case. His little blanket was gripped in his right hand and his dummy was hanging loosely from his pouty lips. Louis only took a moment to try and memorize the scene in front of him before gently scooping the three year old up into his arms. “Shh, shh…” He whispered bouncing a little when the toddler whimpered. He grabbed the two essentials, the dummy and the blanket, and then headed back out towards the living room.

“It’s all yours,” he said quietly, smiling when the younger lad stood up to press a gentle kiss to George’s head. “I think my phone charger is on the floor somewhere, if you need to charge your phone.”

“Thanks Lou, goodnight.” Liam said grinning at the Yorkshire lad, before heading into the dark room and clicking the door shut behind him.

Louis quickly made his way back down to Harry’s room, navigating through the dark easily enough. He walked around to the free side of the bed and lifted the blanket just enough so that he could slide in - and although he was fast asleep again, Harry immediately scooted over to cuddle up to George’s back. Louis smiled, something he was doing constantly these days, and made sure that the blankets were covering both boys. He finally settled into the pillows and let out a content sigh. He knew realistically that eventually everything with the sextape would blow over and he would make his big comeback, but he also knew that he would be content to stay in this little bubble for the rest of his life.

It had been such a long time since he felt so loved and healthy (both mentally and physically). And as Harry began to snore while Georgie stretched against him (simultaneously kneeing him in the balls), Louis knew that he suddenly had a new dream to pursue. Instead of shiny awards and worldwide fame - this new one had little green glasses and deep, deep dimples all wrapped up with endless cuddles.

And Louis knew exactly what he had to do to set it in motion and make sure that he would be able to keep this forever; starting tomorrow when he would finally plan their first date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Friends!!
> 
> It's been a looong time - I'm really sorry about that :(
> 
> Unfortunately, biweekly updates just aren't realistic at the moment since school and work have both suddenly picked up -but I'm going to do my absolute best (I'm not making any promises though) to update at least once a week. 
> 
> I hope you all like this chapter though! I just banged it out in like an hour and a half...so while reading, if you happen to notice any spelling/grammar errors, please kindly let me know in the comments!
> 
> Happy Halloween!! :)


	7. Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **this gets real emotional at one point - fair warning :)**

(  **One Month Later - December )**

  
  


Of all the ways that Louis imagined waking up on his twenty-sixth birthday, drenched in a puddle of wee was definitely not one of them. 

 

Everything had been fine the night before -George, Harry, and himself all climbed into bed around eight for a movie night. George had picked  _ Mickey’s Christmas Carol  _ and Harry had made them all hot cocoa. Their mistake was that even though they stayed up for at least another three hours after George had fallen asleep, neither thought to wake him, just long enough to bring him to the potty one last time. Rookie mistake. 

 

So here Louis was, naked and bleary-eyed at _five-oh-two_ , on his birthday, standing under the warm water spray in the shower with a just as naked and whimpering George in his arms, trying to both console the boy and rinse their skin to prevent any rashes from forming. All the while Harry, bless him,  stripped the bed. Because, the lucky bastard managed to go wee-free, since you know George liked to sleep plastered to Louis’ side (or on top of him, more like). 

 

“Georgie, everything’s okay. Accidents happen all the time, no harm done little lad.” Louis said soothingly, while shifting slightly so that George was more centered  under the water. He rubbed his palm up and down the toddlers back in the hopes that he would calm down. 

 

It was Louis’ fault that he was upset, it’s not like he had been expecting to wake up to warm wee seeping through his pajamas, so when he realized what exactly was spreading on him he jumped out of the bed with a rather loud gasp which managed to both jostle George, who had been on his chest, and completely scare him into thinking he was in trouble. Louis was an absolute asshole. 

 

Harry wandered into the bathroom a little over ten minutes later, the soiled sheets bunched in his arms which went right into the dirty laundry hamper. He washed his hands quickly before walking over to the shower, knocking gently on the glass door. His heart warmed instantly at the sight in front of him - George had his hands tucked between his little tummy and Louis’ chest, and his head was nestled against the older lads throat - and even over the sound of the shower head Harry could hear his little snuffles. Ever since he was a newborn baby, Harry could always trust a warm bath or shower to instantly put him to sleep. Whether it’s the sound of the water, or how warm it is, maybe a combination of the two - Harry didn’t know for sure but damn did it melt his heart. 

 

“How’s it going in here? Want me to take him so you can finish up?” He asked quietly, once he managed to catch Louis’ attention. 

 

Louis smiled and nodded slightly, “I just want to rinse off and I’ll be out.” Harry grabbed the fluffiest towel they owned and opened against his chest - Miraculously the two managed to somehow maneuver the toddler from one chest to another...all  without waking him up. 

 

With his arms now free, Louis turned towards the shower head to rinse off his stomach and sides one last time before turning off the spray and stepping out. It only took him a few minutes to dry himself off since he kept his hair dry. He let the towel drop to the floor before making his way back towards the bedroom. He knew later the younger lad would pout at him about leaving a wet towel crumpled on the floor instead of hanging it up but, well…. it was his birthday and he was going to use that excuse any chance he got today. 

 

Louis smiled at the sight that greeted him, snatching a pair of boxers from the top drawer and only pausing to slip them up onto his hips before he climbed back into bed scooting in close to the two boys. “Let’s hope we get a few more hours to sleep….at least…” he muttered quietly, letting his body relax into the bed again as Harry giggled. 

 

“This was definitely a morning to remember…” Harry said quietly as he placed his phone back onto his nightstand now that Louis was back in the bed. When he only heard a grunt in response, Harry glanced over at the Yorkshire lad and smiled fondly. “Hey,” He whispered, carefully reaching over his son who was snuggled into his chest for a change to run his fingers through Louis’ fringe. “Happy birthday, lover.” 

 

Louis instantly felt his cheeks getting warm while he dipped his head down into his pillow to hide his smile. “Thanks, babe.” He whispered back blindly reaching out for the younger lad’s hand to hold.  

 

“We can have birthday wake-up take two in a couple hours. Hopefully it will include tea and presents  instead of bodily fluids.”

 

Louis snorted, stretching out his legs and relaxing again once he was comfy. He would have protested against the ‘presents’ comment since he told Harry countless times that he had everything he could possibly want, but he knew better now. That didn’t mean though that Louis didn’t like to tease him, because c’mon it was just too easy to make him pouty - and that way Louis had an excuse to kiss him. 

  
  


The rest  of the morning went by a lot smoother after that, although Harry figured just about anything they could have done would have been better than wee. He and George snuck out of bed a little after nine and wandered down to the kitchen, mindful of the Tomlinson/Deakin family members that were scattered around the house all still peacefully sleeping. 

 

The two shared a banana while the tea brewed, and Harry would occasionally stir around the porridge that was simmering away on the stove. Since, you know, Louis was actually an old man who requested porridge as his birthday breakfast. 

 

“Do you remember what today is?” Harry asked while he went about grabbing some fruits from the fridge. He glanced down at his son, who was currently munching on the last of the banana while he rested against his shoulder, but he instantly straightened up and nodded excitedly. 

 

“My Lou’s bir-day!” He whispered excitedly, wiggling slightly on his father’s hip. 

 

Harry smiled, pressing a kiss to George’s soft cheek. “That’s right bubba,” He praised, setting the three year old down onto the counter so that he could safely dish out the hot food into the bowls George had picked out. “So we have to make the whole day really special for him okay?”

 

“We gots him loads of pressies… here Dada.” George interrupted his excited squeal to hold out the now limp banana peel.  “Me help, Dada?” He asked curiously while carefully positioning himself on the counter so that he was on his knees.

 

“Of course,” Harry said instantly, waiting until George was settled again to throw the peel in the bin. “Okay, so what we need to do is use all this yummy fruit and make Lou’s porridge look really pretty.” he explained slowly, pointing to the assortment of fruit he had taken from the fridge when they first got to the kitchen. 

 

“No know how…” George pouted, his little shoulders drooping slightly. 

 

“Hey, don’t worry...we can do it together!” Harry said quickly, hoping to avoid any and all breakdowns today. “How about we make a smiley face, hm? Because Lou is always so silly.”

 

At that, George giggled lightly and quickly got to work picking up various blueberries and strawberries, even managing to convince his father into pouring on some honey before he deemed it good enough for ‘his Lou’. It was by no means a perfect smiley face, but it was definitely discernable and Louis would absolutely love it which was all that really mattered. 

  
  


Once everything was balanced on the small tray Harry first set George down on the ground before picking it up. On their way back to the bedroom Harry hip-checked the pantry door open so George could sneak in to retrieve their giant gift bag. The walk down the hallway took so long that Harry was sure the whole house would be awake by the time they made it there - only because George was insistent that he be the one to carry the gift bag even though it was as big as him. 

 

Finally though, they made it back to the bedroom and the minute the three year old caught sight of the Louis shaped lump under the covers, he dropped the bag and set off in a run. “George be gentle please, we need to wake him up nicely.” Harry said shaking his head fondly while kicking the door shut.

 

Louis really should have been expecting the impact of George’s small body since he woke up during their trek back to the room, but he still let out a small “Oof”, reaching out his arms to stabilize the toddler. “Morning little lad.” Louis laughed quietly trying to squint his eyes open, the smell of fresh tea helping a little bit. 

 

“My Lou!” George cried throwing his arms up in the air and then around the Yorkshire lad’s neck. “Happy bir-day! Dada! My Lou awake!” 

 

Harry laughed while he climbed back into bed beside the two, the tray of food safe atop his nightstand. “He is, baby. Make sure you give him loads of birthday kisses.” He smiled, managing to sneak his own in quickly with a whispered “happy birthday” pressed into the older lad’s lips.  

 

Louis giggled, content beyond belief as George went to town pressing kiss after kiss to both of his cheeks. “Alright you monkey, that’s enough!” He laughed sitting himself up after at least two whole minutes, surely George lips had started to go a little numb. “That was the best birthday wake up ever!” 

 

George smiled bashfully folding his hands together. “My Lou, me and Dada maked you breakkie.” He announced proudly, puffing out his little chest. 

 

Louis gasped and threw his arms around the toddler, relishing in his giggles. “Did you really?! And what did you make me?” 

 

George pressed all his giggles into Louis’ neck, pulling himself away to shake his head at the older lad, “So silly, My Lou…” he crawled over towards his father, while Louis’ heart melted to a puddle in his chest, “I give my Lou his bir-day breakkie?” he asked hopefully, smiling brightly when Harry nodded his agreement. 

 

“Close eyes, pease!” He called over his shoulder while watching as Harry reached over for Louis’ bowl.

 

“Make sure you tell him that it might be a little hot still okay? He should blow on it so it doesn’t hurt his tongue.” Harry reminded his son gently, keeping a steady hand on the toddler’s waist while he walked back across the mattress.

 

“Oh Georgie, this looks so yummy!” Louis gushed taking the bowl from the three year old and nuzzling his little cheek with his nose. “Thank you so much.” 

 

George’s cheeks were a pretty shade of red from all the attention and affection that the Yorkshire lad was giving to him. “Love you, My Lou.” He whispered quietly, so quiet in fact that both the adults weren’t sure if they even heard him right. 

 

Louis glanced over at Harry and tried to ignore the sting growing in his eyes, but seeing Harry’s tear stained cheeks did not help whatsoever. With a shaky sigh, Louis brought his arms up around the toddler and tugged him in close not breaking eye contact with the other man at any point. 

 

“I love you too, Georgie. So, so much” 

 

~

 

It seemed that once the house was awake, it was awake. Louis felt like he was a kid again with all the noise and excitement, of both his birthday and Christmas, thrumming through every single room. 

 

He had been well and truly spoiled this year. 

 

Harry and George got him an array of gifts ranging from a new xbox and video games, a matching set of pajamas to match George (who screeched so loud at the sight of their matching clothes that poor Dan nearly dropped him from his arms at the shock of the piercing sound), and Harry had made him a ‘voucher book’ of sorts that Louis was so excited to flip through and start using. 

 

His favorite gift though by far was from Lottie. She had waited until after all the little ones were in bed, and the older girls were distracted with helping Harry in the kitchen prepping all the food for tomorrow. She all but dragged him up to the loft where she pulled out a little gift bag, handing it off quickly like it was burning her. 

 

She huffed at his raised eyebrow, and started fussing with her fringe obviously nervous. “I hope you like it...and it’s okay if you don’t. I just...I made all the girls something similar for Christmas but yours was special and I wanted to give it to you privately. You know, in case you hate it.” She finished sucking in big breath. 

 

“Jeez Lotts, breathe would you.” He muttered sitting down on the air mattress and pulling her down next to him, trying to calm her down. He took one last look at her biting at her bottom lip before turning his attention to the bag sat in his lap. He carefully pulled out the tissue paper and set it off to the side, movements slowing when he saw a black box. “Is it a watch?” He asked curiously, since that was the only thing he could think of that would fit in a box this size. He pulled up the top and immediately furrowed his brows, it was a dog-tag style necklace and right in the center was what looked like, “Is this a fingerprint?” 

 

“Flip it over…”

 

Louis ran his fingertip over the cool silver while chancing a glance up at his sister, who still looked like she wasn’t breathing right. Using the same fingertip that had been smoothing over the curved lines, he flipped it and tilted the box slightly so he could read the writing. 

 

One look at the first word though had him gasping for air. As gently and quickly as he could he freed the [necklace](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/c5efb27d-6d58-4d84-827e-6c2037b3e4c3_1.1a5cadd4600d0068fdac4263cdafd81a.jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF) from the box. And without it he was able to see everything so much clearer. There imprinted on this necklace was his mother’s handwriting, from his birthday card the year before she got sick. He smoothed his thumb over her writing, reading the words over and over again until the blurriness of his eyes was too much. 

 

_ I love you to the moon and back, darling.  _

_ You make me so proud.  _

_ Mum. X _

 

“Oh my god,” he gasped quietly, flipping it back over suddenly because now he understood. Not only was this her handwriting but it was also her fingerprint. “Oh Lottie...I fucking love it.” He whispered, sniffling as he tugged it over his head. Once it was secured around his neck, he tucked the chain underneath his shirt instantly feeling calm as the cool metal sprouted goosebumps on his chest. “Thank you so much.” He said, as sincere as he could now that there was a steady stream of tears going down his face. Without another thought he grabbed Lottie by the shoulders and tugged her to him, gripping her like he was afraid she was going to leave him. 

 

She instantly settled against him with her face in his neck and hugged him back. “I wasn’t sure..” she started with her face still in his neck, although he could feel the growing wetness against his skin and knew she was crying too. “I didn’t want it to set you off..” she started sheepishly, continuing quickly when he went to interrupt her. “Don’t get me wrong we were all heart broken, how could we not be? But you were devastated Lou, you two were so close. A little piece of you died when she did and I was afraid this would push you away from us somehow.” She admitted with a shaky sigh, digging her face back  into the juncture of his neck. 

 

Louis bit his lip, tightening his hold on his sister as an overwhelming sense of guilt flooded his body. “I’m so sorry, Lotts…” He whispered into her temple, smoothing his hand over hers that fisted itself into his shirt. “I- I’ll never be able to apologize enough for just abandoning you all...I was- I wasn’t thinking right. But she was your mum too and I had no right just fucking off the way I did. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you..” 

 

Lottie slowly extricated herself from his arms and fixed him with a glare. “Don’t you dare apologize. I should because I fucking let you leave. We all had each other and you isolated yourself. You probably grieved four times as long as the rest of us because we allowed you to do it by yourself.” 

 

She crossed her arms, while raising one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Louis took one look at her trying to be upset with him and couldn’t stop the slow smile from spreading across his face. In that moment she looked just like their mum, and he told her as such. 

 

“Yeah well,” she started with a huff even though they both knew she was biting back a smile, “ You’re the one that got her attitude. Lord help us all because she was the only one sassy enough to put you in your damn place.” 

 

Louis grinned hard, feeling all sorts of emotions coursing through him. The one that was outshining all of them though had to have been pride. Both at what Lottie just said, and seeing what an amazing women she was turning out to be. And as much as she liked to point fingers, they both knew she truly shared the same fire that their mum led her life with. 

  
  


“Something is very wrong with this picture and I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

 

Harry glanced up at the older lad stood in the doorway and smiled. “George wanted to sleep in with the twins tonight.” Since Louis’ family was staying at their house for Christmas the youngest  twins had been using George’s room (since the three year old slept in Harry’s bed). Dan had taken claim to Louis’ old room, and the four oldest girls were using the loft. 

 

“He’s replaced us.” Louis said, feeling his shoulders droop just at the thought. He started trudging his way to the bed when Harry raised one, entirely unimpressed eyebrow. 

 

“Wow, and here I was thinking you’d be so happy at the thought of getting me all to yourself for a whole night.” He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his face the other way, feigning annoyance just to see the older lad squirm - it worked (obviously). 

 

“Well when you put it like that,” Louis muttered before he catapulted  himself onto the bed, landing in a straddle over Harry’s hips. 

 

Harry felt a blush creeping its way up his neck, even though he technically started it (and had been secretly hoping for this outcome). But being the sole center of Louis’ attention was one of  the most magical feelings he’s come to experience. 

 

Without wasting another second, Louis leaned down and started to place kisses - really just brushes of his lips to Harry’s chest, slowly working his way up. Harry let out a shaky breath and brought up one of his hands to hold the back of the older lad’s neck so he wouldn’t stop his ministrations. 

 

“Not that I’m not entirely enjoying this, because we both know I am…” The gasp shocked both of them as Louis’ hand crept down between them, but Harry bit at his lip so he wouldn’t keep getting distracted - he had a plan dammit. 

 

“Lou…” Harry whined out, eventually managing to muster up enough strength to reach down and cover his bits so that he could finally focus. He smiled reassuringly up at Louis though who was confused to be stopped, but respected what he thought were Harry’s wishes and made to start getting off of him.

 

“No...No,” Harry said quickly, “It’s just that there is a bubble bath waiting for us and I don’t want it to get too cold.”

 

It took a few long moments for what was said to actually click into Louis’ mind, but as soon as it did he grinned and leaned in for another quick kiss. “Well then what are we still doing in here?”

 

Just before Harry could enter the bathroom though Louis stopped short, allowing the younger lad to walk right into his back. “Oof…”  

 

Louis turned around and fixed him with a serious look, “Listen here, Styles. Whatever happens past this door… just remember that my four sisters are directly above us and will never truly let us live it down if they happen to hear anything.”

 

Harry felt a hot blush spreading out on his face and neck and looked down at his feet trying to think of something to say, but Louis beat him to it when he stepped right up into his space, his hands taking claim on his hips. “You know how much I love your noises, baby. But just for tonight you need to be quiet. Okay?” Louis asked with a small smirk. 

 

Harry swallowed thickly and nodded his head. This wasn’t even the outcome he was expecting. He was truly just looking forward to spending some alone time with the older lad, especially the night of his birthday- he wasn’t complaining though. So to buy himself a few more seconds he leaned forward to press a biting kiss to Louis’ collarbones, right about the second ‘is’ of his chest piece. He let the sting of it simmer for a few seconds, hearing Louis’ breath catch in his throat. 

 

“The water has definitely run cold by now,” He said simply, pulling off of his neck and skirting around him in the same breath.

 

He didn’t have to look back to know that Louis’ jaw was most likely grazing his toes. 

 

~

 

Christmas came and went with an abundance of smiles and in George’s case, his happy little dance/wiggles. There were so many collapsed boxes and bags of ripped wrapping paper out in the garage that Harry was sure he was never going to see the end of it, but this was truly the best holiday any of them had ever had. 

 

There was a constant pile of dirty dishes piled in the sink that for some reason no one could quite catch up to. And at any one point there was about four different programs blasting from all the kids tablets (honestly how could they even hear anything over each other’s?) but Harry had never felt so happy. He loved the hustle and bustle that the Tomlinson/Deakin family brought with them - he hoped he and George would never spend another holiday in the quiet that they had been so used to. 

 

And Louis was absolutely thriving. He constantly had someone in his arms -typically George. But recently little Doris was extra snuggly with him as well...the only one who ever  complained about that was of course, George. 

 

Once Dan and the kids all left, Louis and Harry did a thorough cleaning of the whole house. Anne and Gemma were still staying for a few days, so George wasn’t too upset, but they all knew the first day with just the three of them was going to be tough on him, since he became so accustomed to having constant entertainment. 

 

Currently, Louis had managed to wrangle George into a cuddling session on the couch. Under the guise of winding him down for his afternoon nap of course (and not at all because his back was throbbing and his legs were seconds away from falling off - Harry didn’t joke about cleaning the house.) They were only about half way through an episode of Paw Patrol when Gemma joined them on the couch. She opened her arms for George when he glanced over, huffing playfully when instead the toddler  turned around and burrowed into Louis’ chest. 

 

“Don’t take it to heart, he’s currently in denial that he needs a nap.” Louis explained, desperately trying to bite back his laugh at her disgruntled face. 

 

Gemma waved him off, not really upset about it. “Soooo…” 

 

Louis glanced back over at her raising his eyebrow at her hesitation. 

 

“Elizabeth emailed me this morning. Because she knew I was still here with you.” Gemma explained, pulling her phone up with an email opened on the screen. 

 

If anything, Louis was only more confused at her explanation but took her phone nonetheless. 

 

_ Gemma,  _

 

_ Hope your holidays were well, and that you are enjoying your break. I look forward to seeing you again after the New Year. I hope you, and everyone else will be  well rested and ready to come back to work.  _

 

_ I am writing this email as a message for you to pass on to Mr. Tomlinson, on my behalf. I know I could very well call him, but I want to respect this time he has with his family. And, it is not incredibly urgent. We have been in constant contact with Mr. Woods’ lawyers and have finally come to an agreement. We would like Louis to come back into the office for a meeting with them to discuss it all, particularly what the future looks like in regards to any platonic or romantic relationships between them both  - and so that he can be a witness to the signing of the NDA we have printed up for Mr. Woods.  _

 

_ Although it is no longer of concern, I do think that Mr. Tomlinson should be aware of the fact that at the beginning of this process Mr. Woods’ team tried to file a lawsuit against him for consequential damages. However, they quickly backed down when informed if that were the case, we would not hesitate to counter sue for both defamation and invasion of privacy.  _

 

_ I do not want Mr. Tomlinson to come rushing back in the moment he is made aware, but I do think should come in sometime during the first week of the New Year so that we can put this all behind us.  _

 

_ See you soon,  _

_ Elizabeth.  _

  
  


“.....wow.” Louis finally said. He dragged a hand down his face while passing the phone back to its rightful owner. “What the hell?”

 

Gemma smiled slightly as she clicked out of her email. “He must have a good team of lawyers if they were seriously brave enough to threaten a lawsuit. For  _ consequential damages _ , of all things.” 

 

Louis rolled his eyes so hard he was honestly surprised that they weren’t currently rolling across the living room floor. “He’s so fucking stupid.” 

 

“What’s going on in here?” 

 

Both Louis and Gemma glanced up at the sound of Harry’s voice. He was smiling, when wasn’t he though, and he immediately came and sat between the two. There was a moment of quiet when George, having heard his father’s voice picked up his head and crawled to his chest. He settled against him instantly and soon enough his sleepy breaths were even and slow again. 

 

“My boss sent me an email to show Louis.” Gemma explained, waiting for Louis’ approving nod to open it up again and hand it off to Harry. 

 

If anything, it was amusing for Louis to watch the younger lad read it. His eyebrows furrowed almost instantly and his lips set themselves into a moody pout. “Seriously?” He huffed out, passing the phone back to his sister. “He leaked a video from when you two were dating, of a rather intimate and personal moment between the two of you. And unless I’m completely off, you weren’t bound by a contract to him, so where does he get the idea that he could sue for consequential damages?!” His voice never raised, but it didn’t take a genius to pick up on the fact that he was extremely upset. 

 

“Hey,” Louis reached out his hand and thread it through the younger lads curls in an effort to calm him down. “Take a deep breath, everything is fine.”

 

Harry only huffed and slouched over so that he could bury his face in the older lads neck, still cradling George against his own chest. “I don’t like him.” 

 

Louis smiled and shook his head fondly at the man who had unknowingly stolen his heart. “I don’t either babe. But don’t let this bother you, it’s almost over anyways and then we can all move on from it.” 

 

Harry let out a long breath and pushed his face further into the juncture of Louis’ neck, not offering anything else as a response. But Louis knew everything that he was trying to convey, and tightened his arm that he draped across Harry’s shoulders to pull him in closer. 

  
  


“You know, I was thinking…” Louis said once they were getting ready for bed. Gemma and Anne had retired to their individual guest rooms only about thirty minutes earlier and George was in the middle of their bed, somewhere, bundled underneath the collection of blankets. 

 

“What’s that, babe?” Harry asked around a mouthful of toothpaste. 

 

“How would you feel about taking a trip to London with me? I could get that meeting over with in the morning and we could be tourists for a day. Oh!” Louis interrupted himself, starting to get excited as he thought out loud, “We could take Georgie to the London Zoo! He’d absolutely love that!” 

 

Harry smirked and turned his body towards the older lad after rinsing out his mouth. “That sounds lovely.” Suddenly he felt shy, nervous for some reason and that was absolutely ridiculous. I mean this was Louis, what was there to be nervous about? “And you know, Niall lives there so maybe he could watch George for us and we could maybe have a date night while in the city?” Oh, maybe that’s why he was nervous, because apparently he lost all brain to mouth filter. 

 

Louis cocked his head to the side and slowly raised an eyebrow. “I’d love that, babe. Let me plan it though yeah? I’m gonna proper romance you.” 

 

His hands had found their way to Harry’s hips, although it was hard to pull him towards him like he had hoped because giggles were coursing through his body. “Why are you laughing at me?” He asked exasperatedly. 

 

“Since,” Harry stopped short and slouched into Louis’s body, unable to control his giggles that he desperately tried muffling with his hand. “Since when is ro-romance a...a verb?” 

 

And for the fiftieth time that week, Louis rolled his eyes hard. But, he couldn’t deny the smile that was tugging at his lips. “God you’re so annoying.” He muttered playfully, reaching out his arm to flip the light off. 

 

“Wait,” Harry gasped running after the older lad as he headed for their bed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. C’mon Lou don’t be mad at me.” Harry whispered bypassing his side of the bed to sprawl his body on top of the man in question. 

 

“You’re going to wake up your son Harold.” Louis warned, but pressed a kiss to his pouty lips anyways. 

 

“You and I both know he sleeps like a log,” 

 

It really shouldn’t have been comfortable, but once Harry nuzzled his head into his neck Louis started to fall asleep. With George snuggled up beside him, and Harry quite literally on top of him Louis knew well before morning he’d wake up in a puddle of sweat but he couldn’t be arsed to care about any of that now. 

 

He was just about to finally fall asleep when he felt Harry shifting slightly, only to reposition himself seconds later. And had it not been for the near silent room, Louis for sure would have missed Harry mumbling “Can’t wait for you to romance me…” into his neck. 

 

But, he didn’t. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI FRIENDS !!!!
> 
> I've missed you so much ! If it wasn't entirely obvious already.... writer's block hit me really hard. BUT... it has passed (knock on wood, dear God it was awful) and I have the ideas flowing for the upcoming chapters, as well as the initiative to actually write them ! 
> 
> Thank you for all being so kind and patiently waiting for me to sort out my sh!t...You're all so lovely <3
> 
> But enough of that sappy-ness,  
> If you have any recommendations for the upcoming chapters, or questions/comments leave them in a comments on here or pop on over to my [tumblr](http://stainedcoffee-cups.tumblr.com/) and we can chat ! 
> 
> Happy Reading !! xxx

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://stainedcoffee-cups.tumblr.com/) !
> 
> happy reading !! xxx


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